


The Succession of Kings

by justhavesex



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-07 22:19:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1915965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justhavesex/pseuds/justhavesex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lelouch never becomes childhood friends with Suzaku, Suzaku still ends up as Knight Zero, and Milly Ashford decides her true passion lies in writing gay fanfiction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. my knight is pretty gay

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

He's been spending too much time with Schneizel, he decides, sitting in the living room, perched highly, sitting in the exact middle of the room. Either he has too many sadistic tendencies  _from_  spending time from Schneizel, or he's developed a more passive attitude because of his  _dear_ —and he uses the term 'dear' very stressfully, because Schneizel isn't dear—dear older brother.

Probably the latter because why else would Lelouch, a crown prince and 11th from the throne need a knight? The question is quite pressing, but the answer remains that somebody killed Clovis and there's a new terrorist claiming that Britannia sha'll fall, and that Japan sha'll fall back into the hands of the Japanese. The problem is also that she claims that Lelouch vi Britannia will be her next victim when Lelouch isn't even  _involved_ in politics. He understands the appeal, though.

He's Schneizel's favourite sibling, the most treasured and the most protected. This terrorist figure-head wishes to use him as a bargaining chip, and that cannot happen. Because then he'd  _owe_  Schneizel something, and that just doesn't sit well with him. So that's why he's here, sitting in the middle of the living room, Schenizel pacing in front of the Knight of Rounds with a sour look on his face.

"Which one, Lelouch?"

"Well," Lelouch says slowly, smirking when Schneizel sends him an irritated look. Just because he's being strapped to some knight doesn't mean he can't irritate Schneizel in the process. He already knows Bradley, Anya and Nonette are out of the question. Bradley is too blood-thirsty and wouldn't protect him properly, Anya is a little girl—and despite her position, Lelouch would lose all pride if he let a little girl protect him—and Nonette annoys him. So does Gino, so he's out of the question. Just the idea of spending ungodly hours around Gino Weinberg makes his skin crawl. Bismarck is too loyal to his father, and Monica.

So that only leaves, "Well, I think Suzaku Kururugi would be a  _fantastic_  knight."

Schneizel twitches.

Suzaku is the best option, he's quiet, obedient, loyal to Britannia but not  _quite_  that loyal. He's a strong fighter, not coming from lineage but from actually being  _worth_  the title—it was scandalous enough that a Japanese became a Knight of Rounds—and Lelouch's life being left in the hand of a Japanese, well, Schneizel doesn't seem to be liking the idea.

Suzaku doesn't look displeased or ecstatic about being chosen, which only hardens his resolve in wanting Suzaku to be his knight.

"Though before I do the official knighting process I'd like to get to know him a bit more, dear brother, cause this could just be a temporary thing." Lelouch says off-handily, "I mean I  _should_  be picking who protects me, correct,  _dear_  older brother?"

"Lelouch," Schneizel says lowly, Schneizel has never really denied him before and he can't see him doing it now exactly, "Are you sure? He may be a traitor." To this Suzaku does twitch.

"With all due respect, Prince Schneizel, I have pledged my loyalty to Britannia. If Prince Lelouch vi Britannia requires my protection, I will act to ensure his safety is guaranteed, even if it may cost my own."

 _I will make him mine_. Is the only thought Lelouch has, the idea of having someone as loyal and strong as Suzaku pledged to him makes his skin tingle. He would be labeled many things, he could require power outside of what Schneizel gives him and—

"Brother, you shouldn't insult people that work hard." He says with a cheeky smile, standing up and brushing his white and golden cape to flutter behind him, "I have chosen Sir Suzaku Kururugi. That is all."

"Very well. Until this matter is settled, protect Lelouch with your life, Knight of Seven, Suzaku Kururugi. Just until Lelouch decides on a knight."

"Who knows, brother, maybe I'll be the first prince in history to make an Eleven my Knight," Lelouch smiles. His words are biting, for both Suzaku and Schneizel, and both of them narrow their eyes on him. But Suzaku surprises him when he merely bows, muttering a bitter 'It will be my honour, My Majesty.' And without being told he follows Lelouch out of the room, Schenizel watching with dark eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"When we're alone address me as Lelouch," he grumbles while throwing his cape onto his bed and loosening his shirt. Suzaku is stiff and still at the door, hands folded right at the crevice of his spin, no smile or emotions on his face. Merely a solider standing guard. "And smile a bit more, you'll be stuck with me until I get bored of you, so at least make it worth my while."

"I cannot call you 'Lelouch', Prince. Your brother would loop my head off." Well, at least Suzaku is aware of Schneizel's over-bearing tendencies. Lelouch merely sighs, puling off his shirt and smirking when Suzaku diverts his eyes to look at the corner of the room with sudden rapt attention.

Of course, maybe there are other reasons he choose Suzaku in the end. Maybe the rumors, above all.

His sister Euphemia was quite  _fond_ —and by fond, he means Euphemia was two seconds away from tearing off Suzaku's clothes and having her way with him—but Suzaku had rejected her. The rumors don't stop there, apparently a friend of a maid that works here caught Euphemia pinning Suzaku against the wall and kissing him and when their lips fell apart, the space left between them, Suzaku told her that's he's gay.

 _Gay_.

When Lelouch heard the rumors he was hanging from the ledge of his bed, manic laughter leaving his mouth as he rolled around until it all stopped. The rumors got thicker, and Lelouch often hears Bradley calling Suzaku out on them. But the worst part was when his sister marched into the living room, all her royal siblings gathered, eyes rimmed with red.

"Are you okay, dear sister?" Odyesseus asked, seeming a bit too concerned. Suiting to his pathetic push-over nature.

" _No_." Euphemia snapped, marching off angrily yelling something about ' _bloody dicks and being more appealing than I_!"

To say that Suzaku already had a low reputation due to being an Eleven already, it sank even further. Not that being gay is really all that unusual in Britannia, if anything it isn't uncommon. At all. But Suzaku is an  _Eleven_ , plus rejecting a royal princess, well, that seems bizarre, no matter what.

"Suzaku," Lelouch says, trying to hide the humor from his voice. "Do you think I'd be a better suited partner than Euphemia?" He really didn't mean to let it slip—just, it's so  _amusing_ , the whole scenario and this Suzaku guy. Bigotry just seems to follow the guy wherever he goes, and Lelouch does lead an awfully boring life here trapped in this castle.

That seems to snap Suzaku's eyes back on him, wide and afraid.

"I'm not I understand what you're asking, My Majesty." Suzaku says gruffly, and Lelouch can  _tell_  he knows exactly what he's asking. But he shrugs.

"Well it doesn't matter if you're gay or not, you would've had to reject her either way. I mean an Eleven dating Euphemia, the prized jewel of royalty being tainted. Why, scandalous." His voice is monotonous and really, the way Suzaku's eyes seem to soften into relief make his stomach curl.

"I see. I'm glad my preferences aren't a bother to you." Suzaku's eyes are looking to the side, a soft smile playing on his lips.

Lelouch stares. He could point out many things, like how he didn't say he's  _okay_  with it—not that he cares, either—or how Suzaku shouldn't be letting his guard down around him. Because Lelouch isn't a nice person, but he merely stares for a moment before snorting underneath his breath.

"All that matters is that you do your job right."

Suzaku swoops down, bowing straight to him without any hesitation, "I will not fail you."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being around Suzaku is as uneventful as he thought it would be.

Suzaku doesn't really try to talk all too often, and drama doesn't seep into his work life. So like most days, Lelouch finds himself spending time with Nunnally, bothering Schneizel and trying to get Cornelia to convince Schneizel into letting him help with the war.

"I'm bored," Lelouch declares, swinging the white king he's holding back and forth. Suzaku isn't even a slightly worthy chess partner, and no matter how much he tries to teach Suzaku the proper ways to play chess he just keeps letting Lelouch down. Suzaku is not a tactician, though, that's probably for the better considering all Suzaku needs to be is a pawn.

Suzaku frowns at the revelation, and Lelouch knocks over his black king, frown deepening.

"You aren't even a slightly worthy opponent." Lelouch grumbles, leaning into the palm of his hand, "I have a terrorist after me and they haven't made  _any_  moves. I'm bored." Really, he's been wandering in the hidden parts of the palace, sending Suzaku away for short periods, and still, not a single person has made a move on him. As much as he doesn't want to be captured, he's bored. His father doesn't allow him to get involved in the military—per Schneizel's request—and Cornelia never makes any progress in loosening his hard grip on Lelouch.

He can only imagine how bored Nunnally must be, she has even  _less_  freedom in doing things than him.

Even Eupheima—Knightless and not a tactician—is allowed to be involved in the war. It isn't  _fair_.

Suzaku doesn't comment on the insult to his non-existent chess skills, "Then what do you suggest we do?"

"I want to leave the palace."

"You can't."

"We  _can_ , as long as you accompany me and Schneizel never finds out." Suzaku doesn't look convinced, but it doesn't matter what he wants because he's the one that gets to decide things, not Suzaku. "Schneizel refuses to allow me to help with the war anymore, so at least I should be able to wander around Britannia."

"Nonnette is good at chess—"

"Or, you can have sex with me. Which sounds better, Knight of Seven?"

Suzaku jolts at that comment, furrowing his brows at Lelouch with a dark look. "Excuse me, Highness?"

"Well, the amusement would only last 20 minutes and I'm not sure if my stamina is as great as yours—" Suzaku's face is getting redder and redder and Lelouch smirks inwardly, already seeing the check mate coming to him, "—but it'll at least be better than  _this_  horrendous attempt of a game."

"Where in town would you like to go to Majes—"

"—Lelouch."

"— _Prince_ Lelouch." Suzaku's face is completely red, and he smirks inwardly. Really, he choose his knight well.

They end up going for a walk in a park 20 minutes away from the palace. He doesn't bother changing out of his gowns, so Suzaku leaves with him stark in his Knight of Rounds uniform. Painted in white and gold, and Lelouch enjoys all the stares that follow them. Every person that he passes, bows their heads to them, some giving him greetings and some asking for him to shake his hands.

They head to a small cafe—which is cleared for privacy reasons by the staff—and they cater to him nicely, Suzaku checks his food for poison like a good knight and Lelouch enjoys the rest of his meal in peace. By the time 6 pm rolls in, still no kidnappers, Lelouch decides with reluctance to head back.

He makes it back, has dinner with Nunnally, who tells him all about what Euphemia is doing in Japan and her whole neutral zone, which Lelouch has to snort inwardly to, and how she thinks it's so  _grand_. Suzaku says nothing, standing right behind Lelouch with his head held high, eyes watching everyone and everything in the area surrounding them in silence.

And it's all interrupted by Euphemia, herself, who comes marching into the garden, stomping angrily.

"Lelouch," she says, putting on a tense of being polite, and Suzaku looks a bit awkward. He merely pats each side of his mouth, slowly standing up, watching how Suzaku moves around him perfectly to once again be by his side. A perfect shield and sword. "I need to talk to you, in  _privacy_." Her eyes look over to Suzaku with harshness.

"I'm afraid I can not do that, Princess Euphemia, I have to be beside him at all times—"

" _Privacy_." She demands this time a bit louder.

Lelouch sharpens his eyes. Euphemia's eyes are rimmed with an eerie glow of red, her voice a bit different, seeming as though she's a puppet being pulled by certain strings. He looks over to Suzaku.

"Watch from a distance, Suzaku." Lelouch demands finally, "I will not leave your sight."

Suzaku frowns at him.

"Very well, but Princess Euphemia, you must hand me over the gun you're carrying before—" she doesn't let him continue, pulling out the gun and pointing it at Lelouch. Time suddenly hurls in different directions, Nunnally begins to scream, Suzaku is wrapping his arms around him in a protective manor all leading up to the gun shot that rings through the air at the same time Lelouch hits the ground.

Then it becomes forceful, slapping him straight in the face.

Suzaku's arms uncoil from around him, lounging at Euphemia and pinning her down, gun clattering miles away from her. She thrashes underneath him, screaming something about ' _I have to shoot him Suzaku, I have too_!' and eventually guards come and take her away, Schneizel marching into after them looking incredibly angry.

All before Lelouch can even exhale.

"What the—"

"Lelouch are you okay?" Suzaku asks in a ball of worry, swarming around Lelouch and patting down his shoulders and waist, nose to nose to each other.

Then, Lelouch exhales.

"I'm fine, now stop touching me, Suzaku."

Suzaku's hands immediately fall off of him. Face still too close for comfort, but in the next second he pulls away, body still close to Lelouch and keeping him close, as though waiting for him to fall. Probably thinking he's emotionally damaged. But why would he? Things like this happen all too often, but he just never thought Euphemia would try killing  _him_. Why him? She has a more likely chance of becoming the Emperor than him, and she has more military influence than him.

There isn't any reason except—

' _Our next victim will be Lelouch vi Britannia. I will have him dead._ ' C.C. declared throughout the hacked television of the nations.

Is Euphemia connected with that terrorist?

"Are you okay?" Schneizel's voice finally interrupts, worried and way to close to his personal space, but his confidence is down, his personality a bit messed up because Euphy—his loving and extremely overly affectionate older sister just tried to  _kill_  him. She tried to kill Suzaku.

"You did well, Knight of Seven." Schneizel finally says, arm wrapped around Lelouch's shoulders as he pushes him towards the castle again. Suzaku lowers his eyes, bowing his upper body slightly, and looking at Lelouch with the eyes of a trained dog—it leaves him unnerved because Suzaku isn't looking at him as a person right now like he usually does, but as an animal ready to shield and protect their master.

"What will happen with the Princess?"

"We will question her." Schneizel interrupts coldly, before looking away, biting his bottom lip as though deep in thought, "I hope for her sake she isn't involved in this knowingly."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"You haven't said anything since Princess Euphemia attacked you." Suzaku points out, voice low and polite, his back to Lelouch as he changes.

"I'm thinking, something you probably don't do often enough."

He hears a brief click of Suzaku's tongue, but no further comments, so he continues.

"Why would she attack me? She has no reason to kill me, I'm not first to the throne, I'm not anything special military wise or public wise. All I am is Schneizel's favourite and Britannia's pathetically protected prince, son of my father's mistress, one of the Knight's." He hisses, throwing his shirt to the side angrily, "What does a terrorist want with me? It'll be  _worse_  for them if they have Schneizel after their blood personally."

"But you are known for your genius tactician ways." Suzaku says smoothly, "The second battle with the Black Knights where you led Britannia soldiers, it was a crushing defeat for them. They probably don't want you to be able to make "miracles" again."

"Yes," Lelouch slowly turns around, dark purple eyes settling on the back of Suzaku's head, hooded and upset, "But what does that have to do with Euphemia, Sir Kururugi?"

Suzaku snorts. "You're the genius tactician, not me. I am just your shield and sword. Nothing else."

"Well, you better start thinking because if they're able to manipulate royalty then I'm in a whole other world of dangers. You can't exactly just kill or hurt royalty, even if it's protecting me."

He turns back around, and he doesn't need to see to know that Suzaku has turned to face him, bowing down on one knee.

"I will do whatever is necessary."


	2. everybody wants me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ** I think I'm gonna forgo Geass in this story. The torture method I speak about is something i just made up haha

 

* * *

 

 

 

Lelouch sighs, moving his chess piece forward and ignoring how Bismark offers him a sympathetic look when they both look over to Schneizel and Suzaku, whom are discussing  _something_. Which is not a good thing, it's never a good thing to see Schneizel discussing anything with  _his_  knight. But he sighs, putting forward another piece. Bismark, at least, is decent at the game, so even while he's practically being imprisoned, at least he has something to do while being imprisoned. And now because of Euphemia, Suzaku—even when he provokes the male with sexual advances—refuses to let him set one foot off of the royal grounds.

It's annoying, that's what it is.

 _Why_  someone with royal blood like him is spending copious amount of time in the Rounds room with a bunch of knights, is beyond his knowing, apparently. Schneizel has reverted back to the protective manor he used to rule Lelouch's life with when he was  _8_ —spend all his time with the Round Knights, always have someone escort him, carry a gun on his person at all times—and sometimes Lelouch has to wonder why the Gods cursed him with the fate of looking fragile—er— _weak_  and being Schneizel's favourite.

It isn't fair, it really isn't.

"It looks like you won again, Prince Lelouch." Bismark says with a half-serious half-kind voice, and Lelouch sighs, leaning back into his seat. "You won even when you're distracted, impressive of Prince Schneizel's—"

"Bismark." He interrupts, blinking over in the direction of Suzaku, "Go retrieve my knight, I'm done here." At some point Schneizel had dragged Suzaku out into the hall to discuss their matters, and Lelouch wants to know, really he does. But he has a feeling that even though Suzaku acts loyal to him, he isn't  _actually_  loyal. Suzaku is the type to be loyal to nothing but his own self-interest, and maybe that's why Lelouch is so dearly fond of his knight. 

"Understood," Bismark says, standing behind his chair before giving Lelouch a low bow and leaving to go 'fetch' his knight. Really, he shouldn't even have to go fetch  _his_  knight. Damned Schneizel. He stands languidly, almost breaking into a smile when he see's a sour looking Suzaku walking back into the room, quickly he brushes off his clothes, straightening out his back and awaiting for Suzaku to come to him, because a prince should never have to go to  _his_  knight. Except Suzaku freezes, glaring at Bradley.

"What did you say?" Suzaku hisses, and Lelouch narrows his eyes.  _Honestly_ , he thinks,  _Suzaku do not start a fight in my presence or else I'll—_

Except Bradley's face breaks out into a huge toothy smile, "Oh? Am I right? You fucking disgusting Eleven  _fag_."

It all happens quickly, Suzaku grabbing Bradley by the front of his shirt—plus the added fact that Bradley actually looks  _surprised_ —and in a moment Suzaku's fist comes up, Lelouch stepping forward with a loud boom of " _Suzaku_!" Suzaku's fist quickly pausing an inch away from Bradley's nose.

"Sir Bradley," Lelouch hisses out this time, he's heard the rumours that Bradley goads Suzaku all the time, but he's never actually seen Suzaku punch—or in this case  _try_ —to punch Bradley for all his useless bigotry commentary. Lelouch immediately suspects whatever Bradley first whispered to Suzaku was something even his knight could not stand for. "I would prefer if you kept your bigotry commentary to yourself, insulting my knight is as if you are insulting me."

What he finds stranger is that Suzaku's hands remain grasped around Bradley's throat, teeth bared and looking absolutely animalistic, as though a hound waiting for it's masters command to rip something to absolute shreds. He reaches up to press his fingers into his forehead, looking over in the direction of that door that opens, Schneizel appearing, Bismark bows once before looking to Bradley.

"That is why he got angry, my prince." Bismark this time says, giving Bradley a quick dirty glare, "He had insulted his Royal Highness. I believe Sir Kururugi was in the right this time."

"Sir Bradley insulted royalty?" Schneizel asks, "Suzaku unhand the man." The room falls cold, Suzaku keeping completely still, his eyes still trained on Bradley, and Lelouch would shiver because the look is blood thirsty, except it's hard to find it in himself to be scared of Suzaku when Schneizel's eyes are slowing getting darker because Suzaku, a mere knight, is refusing to listen to his orders.

"Suzaku Kururugi," Schneizel says a bit more loudly.

"I can not do that, Your Highness." Suzaku finally breathes out.

"Enough," Lelouch says, letting the exhaustion seep into his voice, "Let me guess he said something along the lines of 'Your probably fucking the prince and infecting him with your gayness' or something repulsive like that? Let it go, Suzaku. It does not bother me."

Suzaku sends him this pathetic puppy look, almost as though he's asking with his eyes ' _I can't beat him up, really_?' though, he does understand the appeal. It would be nice to see Bradley get kicked in the ass for all the horrible things the man has done. Lelouch narrows his eyes slightly, and with great reluctance, Suzaku allows Bradley to fall from his grasp.

"Sir Bradley please refrain from insulting my name again, or you will have to be punished, I'm sure Sir Kururugi would be more than  _pleased_  to offer the punishment, as well." Lelouch says, letting his hands clasp together behind his back, pleased when Suzaku falls in his rightful place behind him.

"I apologize." Bradley falls to one knee, except he  _knows_  Bradley is not the type to be actually sincerely sorry, if anything the man will get more and more vicious for Suzaku being protected and in everyone else's favour. Noble sons are annoying for that plain reason; they always feel as though  _they_  are right, and that they should be protected, even if they're in the wrong. He hears Suzaku shuffle behind him, a loud irritated exhale from his nostrils following the motion. He smirks to himself, of course Suzaku still wants to plummet the male, probably more realizing that Bradley isn't even  _sorry_.

"Do you wish to be stripped of your position, Sir Bradley?" Schneizel finally says, a cold note in his voice.

"It's fine brother, though it'd be more amusing if Sir Bradley was right," Lelouch sighs, a wicked grin slowly creeping onto his lips as he begins to walk towards the doors, Suzaku following close behind, he looks over his shoulder once, giving a sad look, his eyes locking with Bradley's, "But sadly I am not,  _yet_." He smiles, biting on his bottom lip to keep him from laughing out loud when he see's Schneizel's face fall into a horrified look. Bismark that looks down and coughs, and how Suzaku screeches after him indignantly, ' _Lelouch don't say misleading things like that_!'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently Euphemia attacking him and Bradley being an asshole allowed some over-bearing switch to just click  _on_ , forcing Suzaku to become like a stalker. Schneizel realizes too, which is never a good thing, because Schneizel considers himself to be the most important person in Lelouch's life, and Suzaku has gotten to the point where he doesn't even trust Schneizel.

To say that his older brother is annoyed is merely an understatement.

(But when Schneizel is annoyed, Lelouch is thoroughly pleased.)

"Suzaku, I wish to speak to Lelouch  _alone_." Schneizel says, for the forth time and Lelouch smirks, leaning into his chair with twisted fingers, legs crossed. On normal days he finds Suzaku's personality a serious one, but once someone comes between Suzaku and his work—well, all the fun and games are completely wiped from Suzaku's face.  _Amusing_ , to say in the least. Suzaku doesn't budge from his position behind Lelouch, merely looking sour and torn between obeying and looking between Lelouch and Schneizel.

"Sorry, dear brother," Lelouch says breezily, leaning back into his seat with a tight smile. "I had ordered him to only obey me, he is  _my_  knight, after all." He had mostly done that because if even Euphemia is capable of being manipulated, he can't take any chances. Suzaku cannot trust any of the royalty if even royalty will attack him in the name of C.C., it was mostly a safety precaution, but he didn't think it'd end up being so amusing. Suzaku straightens out his back, hands crossed on his back, near the very bottom of his spine, and Lelouch smiles, acting as though he's pleased.

Except he knows it's extremely unlikely that Schneizel will ever bother attacking him—because  _why_  would second to the throne need to kill his favourite brother?—but he had thought the same with Euphemia, and she still tried to kill him. Except, well, he isn't exactly Euphemia's favourite. Schneizel finally sighs, a sigh of resignation, and Lelouch almost feels bored again. Of  _course_  Schneizel would give in so quickly if it means assuring Lelouch's safety.

"I came to speak about a serious matter," Schneizel says, his tone in business mode. "I need you to lead the battle in Narita at the moment. I'm afraid at this rate we will lose and I do not have the time to go over there myself, I assume that you'll be able to flip the tables easily enough?"

He blinks, thoroughly surprised. He thought Schneizel would ask him about war tactics, not ask him to actually go head off to battle.  _Ah, perfect_. He uncrosses his legs, leaning towards Schneizel with gleaming eyes. "I'm not sure, dear brother, this is a huge favour I am doing you, what will I get in return?"

Schneizel sighs, loudly and noisily, something completely unfitting of a crown prince. "Lelouch, I do not have time for your games. I will offer you the chance to attend war council meetings, will that be enough?"

He pauses. That  _would_  be enough, but he could try to push for more. Except if he pushes  _too_  much he knows Schneizel would rather just lose the battle than give Lelouch complete military influence. His brother has always been extremely protective to an annoying amount. He pursues his lips for a moment, before nodding. "That will be enough."

Schneizel rises, "Good. Head to the deck below with your knight and head to Narita now, Llyod will inform you of the situation as you fly there. Have a good plan ready for when you land because I can assure you, our side is losing miserably." Schneizel leaves at that, and Lelouch watches him. It feels strange, it always feels strange when Schneizel loosens his collar. Yet he still understands his jurisdiction, Schneizel is telling him to remain out of the battle, to direct it from far away, not up close. And most of all, Suzaku is not to leave his side.

He exhales loudly, looking behind him to see Suzaku staring at him curiously.

"What do you think, Suzaku?"

"Think about what?"

He almost snorts at that, not surprised in the least. Of course Suzaku doesn't think, Suzaku is merely his pawn. He waves his hand in a dismissive way whilst he slowly stands, looking out the window to see a royal plane awaiting him. Schneizel probably knew every move this meeting would have, knowing his adorable little brother would be more than willing to direct an army. It's irritating.

"Well then, Suzaku, should we go make miracles?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Remind me to hit Schneizel when I see him again," Lelouch grits to Suzaku, who gives him an odd curious look.

Schneizel saying that they were "losing" the battle, was a complete fluke. If Lelouch arrived a minute later, they would have already lost the battle. Except he's a man of miracles, and a sore loser. He sighs, biting on his bottom lip as he thinks. He already secured one area, but the problem lays that they're completely out-numbered. Cornelia is missing along with Guildford, and he fears that she might've already been captured. The only chance at winning is if they use Suzaku and his knight frame. Except, he can already imagine the tongue lashing Schneizel will give him.

He sighs, rubbing his chin.

"Suzaku, if I give you twenty minutes do you think you could wipe out at least half of the enemies and locate Cornelia?"

"That would require me to leave your side, your Highness."

" _Suzaku_ ," Lelouch grits, leaning back into his seat. "They will come and capture me if we don't win this battle, I will be fine. Unless you take more than forty minutes, then the rate of me being captured increases every second. If, you can defeat half in twenty minutes I will be more than grateful." Llyod behind him chuckles gleefully, and he watches with interest as he turns on his heel, cheerfully yelling towards his assistant, Cecile to ' _prepare the secret weapon_!' And Suzaku shifts nervously, seeking Lelouch's gaze.

"Lelouch..." He says carefully, and he smirks, almost pleased that Suzaku must be quite torn if he's disregarding Lelouch's titles. He waves his hand at Suzaku, leaning into it with a smirk.

"You are my knight, correct? Show the world how powerful the protected prince of Britannia truly is."

Suzaku drops to one knee at that, his head bowed low, and Lelouch sometimes wonders if Suzaku is just naturally loyal or had he actually done something to make Suzaku so intensely loyal to him? "I will not disappoint you, Prince Lelouch." Suzaku rises, and Lelouch throws him over a small receiver.

"Make sure you follow each of my instructions perfectly. Aside from that, just wipe out whoever you can and as many as you can." Suzaku nods, turning around the follow Llyod to get ready. Even if Suzaku only manages to get about 1/3 of the enemies flanks, they're advantage will rise. He looks to the side, tilting his head at the chess board.

"Maybe I'll play a game," he muses to himself and the captain of the ship gives him an odd look. He can only imagine, the guy is probably thinking royalty is crazy, playing a game of chess whilst in the middle of a battle. He shrugs back his shoulders, stopping in front of the chess board and rearranging the pieces until they're in position. The only challenge will be that Guren that seems keen on ruining his few chances of actually winning, but surely Suzaku can wipe it out easily enough.

"Everyone," he announces into the microphone, smirking because he  _knows_  the enemy must be listening in. "Please retreat for now, get out of the way." There are quick intones of 'Roger' and 'Understood' and he looks over to the screen, watching how the enemies pause whilst his troops retreat. They'd just be in the way after all, he had ordered Suzaku to wipe people out, not to play nice and protect their troops.

"There's an incoming transmission!" One of the deck holler, and he turns around.

"Let them through."

He blinks in surprise, his gaze meeting the terrorist of the empire; C.C. He was expecting someone high in the chain of demand, but not  _this_  high.

"Lelouch," she greets, her gaze devoid of emotion, and statically he can hear Cecile tell him in his ear piece that Suzaku will be launching in two minutes.  _Check mate_ , he thinks. He moves towards his chess board, putting the white knight in the middle of the board before he finally looks up to meet her gaze. "Can I take you retreating your troops as a sign of you giving up?"

He hums, stroking the head of the white knight, he's seen Suzaku battle before, and even the other fellow knights find him terrifying because it's more of a one-sided massacre more than anything else. Because unlike most people, Suzaku follows demands without questions. He kills and stains his white uniform without batting an eyelash, and to have such a powerful piece under his thumb and currently loyal to  _him_ —well, he smirks, feeling as though he shouldn't just begin laughing manically—it makes him want to cackle.

"Not quite," he finally says when he hears Cecile finally say 'he's out on the field now', blinking his wide eyes at her. "You see, I've decided to challenge you, C.C., think of it as a bet."

"A bet?"

"Yes. I just sent my knight to the field, I ordered him to kill off as many of your troops as possible in twenty minutes, so after twenty minutes are up you will no longer have the chance to kidnap me as you've been claiming for a couple weeks now."

She frowns. Her hands slowly coming up and her fingers intertwining with each other as she narrows her eyes. "And what is the bet?"

"That if my knight wins and I am safe after twenty minutes, you will tell me how my sister, Euphemia, was manipulated into attempting to kill me."

"And if you lose?"  _She's interested_ , he thinks to himself smugly.

"Well, then I will be your captive, won't I?"

She smiles to that. Nodding.

"Very well, I agree to your bet." And the line goes dead.

He turns to the screen that shows all the knightmares out on the field, feeling a bit smug when he see's already 11 of C.C.'s flanks go dead in the first four minutes. Mostly because they're blindly attempting to head to where he's safely located and he has no idea  _why_  she's so keen on capturing him of all people, but it doesn't matter. Victory matters.

"Suzaku, a lot of their troops will be attempting to come and kidnap me. So make sure you don't let anybody get past you." He hums into his microphone, tilting the white knight forward, before he snatches the black knight,  _The Guren_ , he thinks, looking over to the board of knightmares floating, before putting her closer to the edge. Of course C.C. would send her best knight to attempt to get him.

"What?" Suzaku hisses into the microphone back, "Prince what did you do?"

"I told them my knight was going to protect me by himself for twenty minutes  _while_  wiping out her troops."

"Lelouch!" He hears Suzaku yell back into the microphone, and Lelouch laughs, truly just  _laughs_.

"I made a bet, Suzaku. Now, be careful that Guren is trying to go on the side to attempt to attack me, you might want to get rid of it first."

" _Understood_." Suzaku bitterly reports back with, and he watches with awe as Suzaku's knight mare goes from the center of the field and practically teleports to where the Guren is, he watches carefully, all the other smaller followers slowly approaching as Suzaku takes his time fighting the Guren. Though he did guess that the Guren would take the longest of all the other enemies. Finally after 6 long minutes—and Lelouch is slightly impressed that Suzaku managed to lead his battle with the Guren back to the center so he can wipe out other enemies whilst fighting the strongest—the Guren's knightmare finally clicks off of the screen. Lelouch smirks, thoroughly pleased.

"How long has it been?"

"10 minutes." Lelouch reports back, "You still need to wipe out more to take out at least  _half_ , Suzaku."

Suzaku grunts, and he thinks it's something akin to 'Got it', but it seems muffled underneath the roar Suzaku lets out, suddenly another 5 disappearing off of the screen.  _Ah_ , he really does thoroughly enjoy playing games that he'll win. He throws the black knight off of the board, and pushes off a few more pawns, letting the white knight approach closer to enemy territory. He frowns, no that's wrong. He doesn't want a checkmate with Suzaku—that itself is too risky—he sighs, "Suzaku, fall back, stay closer to my ship."

 _15 minutes_.

He pauses, looking at the black Queen.

 _Something is wrong_ , he thinks to himself, Suzaku had obeyed him, staying close to the ship and wiping out as many as he can. But something feels  _wrong_ , as though the whole situation is  _too_  easy. The Black Knight's aren't Britannia's biggest threat for nothing.

"All troops, head into battle. Maintain the line Suzaku has set."

" _Understood_!" He hears a loud chorus of, before he turns back on the microphone with Suzaku.

"Suzaku, come back. You've taken out half already. Get back to my side as quickly as possible."

The royal troops flank in, and once they've begun to hold Suzaku's spot, he falls back.

"Incoming transmission," he grits his teeth, of course the damned terrorist would pick up on him letting his knight fall back sooner than what was agreed on. He grunts a quick 'accept it' and leans back into his seat, frowning at her.

"He's falling back a bit earlier then what was agreed on," C.C. says, voice as calm as ever even though she's now losing the battle.  _Something is wrong_ , his brain screams at him, but he has no pieces to figure out  _what_.

"By the time he's back to my side twenty minutes will have been up, see? It's already 18 minutes and his ship is back in cargo now. It'll take 2 minutes for him to get up. I am not lying. Our deal was twenty minutes unprotected."

She's quiet, but apparently taking it in stride. "Since when did the White Reaper become your knight, Prince Lelouch?"

"Who knows," Lelouch inclines back,  _19 minutes_ , before he sighs, "I've been quite heavily guarded ever since your declaration. My brother is not pleased with you."

The door opens, revealing a perfectly immaculate Suzaku walking into the room, downed in his usual Rounds uniform as he comes to Lelouch's side again.

"Well, it would seem twenty minutes are up, will you honour our deal?" Suzaku offers him a side glare at that, and he knows that he probably muttered something under his breath, but he doesn't hear it. C.C. looks torn, before sighing, leaning back into her seat.

"We had tortured her, using the Chinese method of Xi Nao. It involves dumping them in a sedative and repeating the demands until their eyes go red, usually the redness will last until the demand is completed."

"And is there a way to alter it?"

"It'll disappear in time, Prince Lelouch." C.C. says mockingly, "We will be retreating." The line goes dead again, and to her word, her troops begin to fall back.

"Do not attack," he voices into the microphone, "They have admitted defeat."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"You are absolutely reckless," Suzaku reprimands as soon as they're alone, Suzaku's back to him as he changes from his usual prince like outfit into some more comfortable and for sleeping. Lelouch rolls his eyes, letting his shirt slip off his shoulders, he already heard the whole ' _you put yourself in danger Lelouch, you are_ not  _coming to any meetings, you disregarded my orders_ ' from Schneizel. He had a feeling that would be the case, that's always the case with Schneizel. He wasn't expecting anything less, but at least he got to directly confront C.C. which did make him feel slightly better considering that he won. "What if they got to you before I did?"

"Then you would just have to come after me." Lelouch says carelessly, shrugging his shirt off, and reaching for his other shirt, ignoring how Suzaku goes " _You_ —!" before falling silent and turning back around. He does find it kind of odd that Suzaku seems shy even  _looking_  at his skin, but wasn't he previously a foot soldier? He'd have to be surrounded by hordes of naked men then. "Why are you so shy seeing me naked? I highly doubt you haven't seen naked men before me."

Suzaku is quiet, and Lelouch turns around to see Suzaku looking at him. "It isn't that I'm shy, I just don't want to make you uncomfortable."

He snorts to that. Of  _course_  that'd be Suzaku's grand reasoning. "Uncomfortable? I don't quite have anything to be  _uncomfortable_  about, Suzaku. I've had people watch over me while I change since I was a child," to further prove his point he slips out of his pants, his gaze on Suzaku as though daring the man to look away. "You don't need to be so sensitive about my feelings, I already told you I do not care about your  _preferences_ —all that matters if that you are my tool, or does Sir Bradley's teasing's actually get to you?"

Suzaku's gaze flinches at that. "No that's not—"

"Suzaku," Lelouch sighs, slipping off his pants before pulling a shirt over his chest. "You are my knight first and foremost. What makes you ashamed, shames me as well. You reflect me, and I reflect you. You are a prince's knight, therefore you are above Sir Bradley. Do not give in to his childish mocking."

There's a lot of things he expects Suzaku to answer with, except Suzaku doesn't say a word, his mouth silently falling open as his eyes go wide and glisten. Which is Suzaku language for ' _Thank you_ ' and Lelouch allows his face to wrinkle in confusion when Suzaku drops to one knee, his arm swung over his chest. "I understand, Prince Lelouch." It seems odd, but Lelouch disregards it with an uncomfortable feeling curling in his chest when suddenly he gets it, he understands.

"No... No one ever told you that it's okay to be  _gay_?" Lelouch asks, disbelief lacing his voice. He thought it was strange that Suzaku just became so loyal to him without him doing anything, but now it makes sense. He's the first person to ever give Suzaku confirmation, to tell him that it's  _alright_. Even Euphemia, his extremely caring and loving older sister had scorned Suzaku. Suddenly he feels like a truck has hit his chest. Of  _course_  Suzaku wouldn't get confirmation. He's Japanese, and previous to being a Round's knight he was a foot soldier, and being homophobic is quite prominent there, then Bradley doesn't exactly help the situation and Lelouch hasn't seen Suzaku be friends with anyone except Gino, and he highly doubts Suzaku and Gino have heart felt talks.

Suzaku looks up, slightly surprised. "No, you would be the first."

Lelouch swallows, he could do two things, further make Suzaku feel as though he belongs with Lelouch, or scorn him like the rest of the world. But that'd be too cruel, even for him, especially when he's practically given Suzaku all the signs that he accepts him whole-heartily. His brother won't be pleased, he can already tell that Schneizel is wary of his newly acquired guard dog. Though, he wasn't quite expecting it to be this serious.

"Of course it's okay, you idiot," he grumbles mostly to himself as he turns his back to Suzaku, face flushing.

"I'm still not going to watch you change," Suzaku finally says, laughing. "It feels awkward since it's just the two of us, in the barracks there'd be hundreds, so it wasn't quite as weird."

Lelouch snorts, flopping down in his bed and wanting to call Suzaku stupid when the man comes up and places the blanket over Lelouch's body, looking fondly down at him. "I'm not a child, I do not need to be tucked in, Suzaku." Suzaku's smile just get's wider, before he pulls away his hands and gives Lelouch a brief bow.

"I will retire for the night, please scream if you need me for anything."

 

 

 

 


	3. lie in wait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lelouch is sent to public school and Kallen is finally on the winning side.  
> Everybody is still pretty homo AND MILLY MAKES AN APPEARANCE

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

He wakes up in the middle of the night, feeling quite odd, and when his eyes finally open, they open to the sight of Euphemia standing at his bedside, looking at him.

 _Ah_ , he thinks, and does scream.

Suzaku is in his room in two seconds flat, downed in just boxers and a sword and if Lelouch wasn't within range of Euphemia being able to  _kill_  him then he'd probably laugh at the irony at it. Except he's capable of being killed at the moment, so he backs up in his bed, completely terrified, not feeling all too protected by his knight in shining boxers. Maybe he should've taken up Schneizel's offer on having a second knight for emergencies.

"W—Wait!" Euphemia screeches, holding up her hands, her face flushed red. "I... I just wanted to come apologize and—"

"It's the middle of the  _night_ ," Lelouch exasperates in disbelief, feeling better when Suzaku manages to get between Euphemia and him, and in another minute, Suzaku grabs her arms, twisting them behind her back. He sighs, crawling to edge of his bed, and looking down at his sister, with-holding a laugh that threatens to fall because it's just so  _weird_  to see Suzaku pinning down a princess in nothing but in boxers in the dead of the night.

Which probably doesn't bother Suzaku as much as it does Euphemia considering Suzaku holds more interests in Lelouch's thin  _manly_  legs than her bosom. 

"I know but... I wanted to apologize without anyone around, and I was lost in thought and I just managed to get  _here_."

"How did you get in without the alarm going off?" Suzaku quickly asks, shoving Euphemia's head down and tightening his grasp on her wrist.

"I'm a  _princess_ , I have all the codes to the rooms." She hisses back, and Suzaku blinks innocently at that, looking over to Lelouch.

He shrugs. "She's right." Suzaku's face falls in disbelief at that, probably wondering why Lelouch didn't bother to change his codes right after his own sister  _attacked_  him. "Suzaku I don't think she's here to kill me, she would have already done that if she was. Plus, her eyes are no longer rimmed with red." Suzaku gave him another reluctant look before actually getting off of her, pulling out a gun and keeping it pointed at her as a silent reminder.

"I'm sorry Lulu," Euphemia finally says, grasping the side of her body as she hugs herself. He sighs, letting his legs dangle off of the side of his bed as he tilts his head up at her, forcing up a sincere looking smiling. "I don't know what came over me and—"

"It's fine. You were being manipulated through a torture technique they implemented on you."

She reaches out to grab his hands in hers, and seems ruffled and obviously upset when Suzaku cocks the gun in between them, eyes glaring at her. Lelouch almost wants to purr at the action, not because he likes to see his sisters upset but because Suzaku is acting like an over-protective guard-dog, and being completely honest it feels nice to have somebody loyal at  _his_  side for once in his life. But still, for appearances sake he gives Suzaku a brief sour look before pushing away the gun and holding Euphemia's hands in his. "Euphemia, you did nothing wrong."

She sniffles, and he's thankful she doesn't cry, but she squeezes Lelouch's hands a bit tighter. "I told you to call me Euphy."

(It kind of makes Lelouch feel like he's being threatened, honestly).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"That fucking Britannian lap-dog!" Kallen scowls, throwing her fists uselessly against the wall as a big display of macho-ism, C.C. doesn't know nor does she care. Though she does slightly understand the sentiment, Lelouch and his pearly little knight are a hindrance to her grand plan, a huge road block. She wasn't quite expecting this when she first began, she was foolish enough to believe that there was only Schneizel and Cornelia to watch out for, except the entire royal family is something she's beginning to understand, are people not to be underestimated. The protected spoiled prince included.

She had heard rumours that he was genius and all, but she didn't quite expect them to be  _true_. Next thing she knows Nunnally, the darling crippled princess, will be rumoured to be a mass Japanese murderer. Really, at this point C.C. wouldn't be surprised.

Kallen turns on C.C. with irritation, the crease between her brows becoming steadily more and more prominent as weeks go by. "We need to fucking cut his leash."

"You mean Lelouch?" C.C. drawls lazily, leaning back into her chair as she nibbles at a string of cheese. She's not really surprised that Kallen has already turned her bloodhound senses straight onto the weakling prince, but in brain capacity, Lelouch is a threat. Especially when it seems the White Reaper has taken to becoming Lelouch's personal muscles. Something in the back of her lazy pizza-drunk mind screams  _danger_. But the worst part, with Schneizel she at least knows what he's aiming for, but with Lelouch, she doesn't know his motive.

She clicks her tongue in irritation.

"No, I mean the fucking tooth fairy, of  _course_  I mean Lelouch and his royally spoiled ass." Kallen snaps back, and C.C. barely refrains from muttering ' _touchy_  much?' "Maybe we should claim that we no longer want Lelouch, get rid of that knight of his."

C.C. offers her a quick side look before shoving in another slice into her mouth, filling her cheeks with delicious pizza as she thinks. All this terrorist business really is taking a toll on her, if anything she didn't exactly  _want_  to lead a bunch of idiot half-brains; but she guesses it just kind of ended up that way when her friend—and probably her only friend—Kallen came home bruised in the 5th grade because she was a  _half_.

Equality is almost as important to C.C. as pizza is. Just, pizza is slightly more important.

"We will lay off of the idea of kidnapping Lelouch for awhile," C.C. finally hums, leaning her head back and letting her green hair fan out over the edge of the couch. Kallen scowls as though C.C. just told her she's going to kill her entire family, but she doesn't mind, focusing on the slice of cheesy-goodness in front of her. "Schneizel has been getting too involved now. I underestimated how much of a family favourite Lelouch is."

Well, putting " _favourite"_ is a bit of an understatement, she thinks, ever since she claimed she'd kill or capture Lelouch—really either that came first—Schneizel has been sending troops left and right without break. She understands, he's trying to wipe her off the face of the Earth and her petty resistance before she lays a single finger on Lelouch's pretty head.

(" _Schneizel, how nice of you to call me personally_." C.C. had said leaning back into her chair, cocking her head to the side with a false serene smile.

Schneizel kept up neutral appearances, " _Are you serious about Lelouch_?" She blinked,  _well_ , she wasn't exactly expecting their topic starter to be her declaration that she'll lay hands on the protected prince, but Schneizel looks absolutely serious. Well, if he wasn't going to mention how she kidnapped a bunch of Britannian citizens, then she wouldn't either. Apparently the second prince has more pressing problems (like the safety of his younger brother).

" _Hmm?"_ She paused, mostly for effect, " _Are you referring to my declaration that I'll have him dead_?"

Schneizel's scowl deadens. " _Do not involve him, or I will have to crush you sooner than I originally planned. Only I am allowed to torture my little brother_."

She blinks, and had a feeling she wasn't supposed to hear that last part.)

She squints at the roof, tugging at the pizza with her front teeth.

"If we leave Schneizel's little brother he'll have no reason to bring Lelouch into it, therefore he won't be involved in anymore battles." C.C. finally declares, eyes sparkling in a dead creepy sort of way, "And don't you have school tomorrow, Kallen?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Cornelia, do not be absurd." Schneizel is frowning whilst sipping at his tea that's in some fancy golden cup, Lelouch for once in his life—and he's almost creeped out about him agreeing with Schneizel, of all people—nods his head in agreement with Schneizel. Suzaku behind him shifts uncomfortably, and he briefly wonders if Suzaku would like going to school, but then he doesn't care because he has his own hide to look after.

"Lelouch needs to be integrated into normal society." Cornelia says more sternly, sipping at her own tea, and Lelouch wonders if this is her attempt at thanking him for saving her from the clutches of the Black Knights.

He hates her thank you gift.

"Cornelia, I appreciate your worries but right now isn't exactly the right time to force me into normal society." Really, he doesn't understand why he even needs to associate with peasants. He may be one of the youngest, but he is still royalty. Suzaku shifts again, and Lelouch finally sighs, placing down his tea and looking at Suzaku in annoyance. "Why are you acting like that? What's wrong?"

Suzaku seems kind of shocked, but smooths it over with some sort of fake-concerned look, Lelouch grits his teeth, "Nothing, Your Highness." Suzaku says politely, arm lightly held over his stomach as he gives a slight bow, just enough to show respect, but not enough to seem like he's graveling. Cornelia's eyes flicker between the two, and she sighs.

"Sir Kururugi would also join you, you two are the same age, correct?"  _Now_ , Suzaku doesn't seem all too impressed.

Lelouch kind of feels victorious.

"I think it's a wonderful idea," Nunnally pipes in, sounding absolutely delighted with the idea of sending her older brother and his knight to a bunch of savages to be shredded and ripped apart. If Lelouch wasn't so smitten about Nunnally, he might've glared at her. But all he manages to do is smile at her weakly—damn his family and their genetic inept of being smitten over younger siblings (cough, Cornelia, cough, Schenizel)—and Suzaku still remains as unimpressed as always.

The idea does kind of amuse him though: spoiled crown favourite and his knight in normal day life. Kind of like a bad sit-com. Then at the same time, he feels as though pushing Suzaku into a school full of bigoted Britannians is just playing unfair. Though he has a feeling Suzaku's school life will be more along the lines of "DO NOT LET LELOUCH GET MURDERED" than the whole find a girlfriend—not that Suzaku  _wants_  a girlfriend—kiss for the first time, have some dates, and have drama with friends. He's honestly not sure what's more amusing to think about.

He settles on the mental image of Schneizel burning at a cross.

"Schneizel you can't baby Lulu forever," Euphemia chimes in—and Lelouch coughs at her totally uncalled for opinion considering Cornelia gives in to every whim of Euphemia's— _Schenizel_  is a horrible babier, he's more of the 'hide my precious in a closet and keep him far away from the world', Cornelia is a bit more subtle with her suffocating love.

Just slightly.

Schneizel just slightly sips on his tea, not ready to deny or send Lelouch into the real world.

Lelouch for once regrets mentally burning his older brother and kind of thanks him—

"Well, I guess it wouldn't be so bad, we all did at one point attend public school."

—but everybody makes lapses of judgement every now and then.

Lelouch looks at Schneizel with the most horrified expression he can manage, not once in his life has he ever needed to suck up to Schneizel—unless it's to get involved with something—but Schneizel generally doesn't make him do things he doesn't  _want_  to do. "I have terrorist that want me  _dead_  and you want to send me to public school? Are you even thinking right now?"

"Oh Lulu!" Euphemia exclaims happily, "They've already given up on you, after brother Schneizel practically wiped out their entire Western force."

(Lelouch ignores the prideful smirk Schneizel tries to hide behind a tea cup).

He narrows his eyes, trying his best to look as vicious as possible—which is about as vicious as a newborn kitten—but it's the effort that counts, and Schneizel kind of looks a bit put-off, as though he's regretting his decision.

 _Good_ , Lelouch hisses mentally, d _on't send me into a school full of peasants_.

"Suzaku will be there with you, Lelouch." Cornelia adds in, "You won't be unprotected, and we'll arrange with the school so all your classes will be the same." It isn't like he  _wants_  to send every second of his life with Suzaku, and as though it's the males fault for existing, he shoots Suzaku a dirty look.

Then, Suzaku finally opens his mouth, "My duties as the Knight of Seven do not extend to babysitting royalty at school."

If Lelouch wasn't currently trying to get out of this predicament he would've gotten angry at Suzaku's untactful choice of words. But he's in a sticky situation and any help he get's is appreciated. Schneizel looks absolutely  _livid_  at the defiant tone Suzaku uses, but it's Euphemia that speaks next, words soft and sweet but to the point. "You're going to let Lelouch go to school alone? No offense Lulu, but you're the weakest out of all our siblings."

Lelouch looks over at Nunnally with a curious gaze.

Suzaku kind of flatters at that. "If I don't go with him you'll just send him alone?"

Lelouch kind of falls forward, cursing on how stupid Suzaku is sometimes. Of  _course_  they wouldn't send him alone, and he almost feels like snapping his teeth at the idiotic Japanese, because the expression on Suzaku's face is ' _oh god I can't leave him outside alone he'll get eaten by the ice-cream man_ ' and Lelouch glares.

 _Idiot_ , he seethes, and then glares at Euphemia because when did she become so manipulative?

She just smiles back at him, mouthing the words ' _woman's intuition_ '.

He's pretty sure witches have the same thing.

"I'm glad this matter has been settled," Cornelia says.

"Schneizel," Lelouch tries for, his last desperate attempt to appeal to what really matters; his over-protective brother. He pauses, he needs to pull out  _that_  instinct in Schneizel if he wishes to be cut free of his current chains. "I would've settled for Suzaku, but I'm assuming you want me to find a new  _peasant_  boyfriend."

Schneizel's cup falls to the ground and shatters.

 _Ah_ , Lelouch thinks blissfully.  _Victory._

Schneizel hates two things: 1) people touching Lelouch 2) poor people.

Euphemia goes red.

Oh right, he briefly forgot about her infatuation with his knight. How insensitive of him.

"Your Highness please stop making absurd jokes that could get me killed," Suzaku finally drones behind him monotonously. For some reason now completely immune to all of Lelouch's dirty jokes— _shucks, what a bummer_ —his hands returned to the base of his spine as he rolls his  _eyes_  at Lelouch. Lelouch isn't sure if he should be offended or proud.

It's kind of both, honestly.

"Suzaku I know you want to hide our relationship from Schneizel  _bu_ —"

"Lelouch." Someone says his name and he isn't quite sure who, he thinks it's Euphemia, but she's still silently fuming, and Schneizel's gone absolutely  _livid_  looking so he turns to see that Suzaku's mouth is gaping, as though he's made a terrible  _terrible_  mistake. Lelouch inwardly cackles.

" _Yes,_  Suzu?"

"Sir Kururugi,  _you_ —!" Schneizel begins.

"—Lelouch is just messing with you, brother." Cornelia interrupts. "Lelouch is very much straight."

Lelouch glares at her, kind of insulted she'd just assume that (though he's not sure why he's insulted when it's true). "You don't know that."

"I think it's absolutely lovely if they're together!" Nunnally finally gasps, her cheeks a cherry rose and her hands clasped together in an angelic pose, truly suiting of her. Lelouch kind of melts under her happy smile; of course Nunnally can change any situation to a good one. "Then Brother Schneizel has less to worry about if Lelouch is already dating Suzaku-san, right, brother?"

 _No, Nunnally, no don't_ , Lelouch thinks desperately the warm melting feeling he previously had turning into frozen white chocolate. Schneizel wasn't supposed to see it that way, he's supposed to see it as a threat to Lelouch's immediate safety.

So Lelouch pulls out the big guns, "Well, I guess at school I can always pull Suzaku into some empty classroom and get some privacy we never get here at the palace."

Even Suzaku kind of chokes on that one.

He mentally pats himself on the back.

Schneizel's hands are trembling, and Cornelia just sighs.

"Lelouch, go to school without causing Schneizel all this emotional trauma."

He huffs, "If you send me there I'm going to fuck every guy on the campus,  _and_  girl. I'll get started on my many heirs early."

Nunnally  _laughs_. "That sounds like a brilliant plan, brother."

All bless Nunnally.

Suzaku snorts.

Schneizel looks like he's kind of sobbing with Cornelia sympathetically patting his back (" _Where did I go wrong in raising him?" Schneizel cries in the background_.) With Euphemia still frozen on her seat like a bad marble statue. In the end Cornelia tugs Schneizel off to go see a counselor or something all the while whispering on how much she hopes Lelouch suffers in public school.

Like a true demon.

 _Oh Nunnally_ , Lelouch thinks desperately, and he kind of wants to duck-tape her mouth but at the same time he's kind of melting on the inside because Nunnally is just so  _lovely_. He pauses, before frowning. "Brother Schneizel and Odyesseus didn't go to school."

From the corner of his eye he can see Cornelia break out into a jog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lelouch, to show his displeasure to the whole situation has taken to giving Schneizel emotional heart-cramps and sending his dearest older brother into a heart attack as much as he can, plus bitching at Suzaku as much as he can. Suzaku as usual just seems to block it all out and let it bounce off of him in waves. Suzaku behind him is in the same uniform but Lelouch hates it  _more_  on Suzaku. His knight is supposed to be white, not black.

"This uniform is hideous, I hate black." Lelouch declares for the fifth time that evening, all his spoiled habits kind of pouring out onto Suzaku because he feels as though all this is to blame of Suzaku's inability to properly act.  _Honestly_ , he doesn't understand how Suzaku became such a high ranking military official without lying well. It's astounding.

But even when he knows this is going to suck for him, this is going to suck tens times worse for Suzaku.

He's not sure if he should feel bad, or kinda bad, really bad, not bad. It's all a mess, really. Schneizel has attempted in calling him eight times since 5 AM and Odyesseus even sent Lelouch a text to his new phone telling him how he hopes he has a really wonderful day and he'll help him with his studies if he needs. Lelouch glares at the text, hating how  _happy_  his eldest brother is. How Odyesseus even knows about his life is a mystery to him, he hardly ever spoke to Odyesseus in his entire childhood, but he guesses it's mostly because Odyesseus is busy being the crown prince and all (and Cornelia tells him Odyesseus said he'd feel bad if he smothered him when Lelouch already has Schneizel smothering him).

Lelouch isn't sure if he hates Odyesseus or loves him.

Suzaku makes an awkward tug at his own uniform collar, frowning at the colour. "It feels weird to wear black, I'm usually in all white."

"The White Reaper, I like you that way. It's more ironic."

Suzaku offers him this weird look that generally equals to 'I don't understand your cryptic way of speaking'—when in reality it's just Suzaku being, well, Suzaku (which is dumb)—Lelouch sighs heavily, waving his hand in a dismissive way, because there's no point in explaining anything to Suzaku. He heads towards the car, turning his head away from a smiling Schneizel—and smirks in victory when he see's Schneizel kind of pout—and sits inside the car, Suzaku bowing to Schneizel before sitting in front of Lelouch.

"Now remember Suzaku," Lelouch says, gulping down his feelings of fear because he is a prince and he needs to live up to that expectation. Suzaku needs the reassurance more than him, he knows this. "You are  _my_  knight, nothing else matters. You will carry that pride with you."

Suzaku offers another one of his dumb looks, his lips curving into a slow soft smile, and Lelouch is slightly surprised by the open look of adoration. "Are you trying to comfort me?" Suzaku laughs, and Lelouch huffs, looking away to take to staring out the window.

"Don't be stupid, Knight of Seven."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People react to Suzaku the exact way he thought they would.

Out-right hatred.

Which is quite daring of them, Lelouch gives them credit for that, they sit there staring at his knight in contempt  _openly_  in front of his prince. He thought his people would know better, learn to be more discreet. Suzaku holds his head high though, and Lelouch realizes a moment late that Suzaku is still wearing his pins to symbolize his Knight of Round status.

"Take those off," Lelouch demands, ignoring how people are looking at them. Some whispering ' _who's he?'_  to which other's hiss for him to be quiet.

"Lelouch vi Britannia!" A voice booms, loud and throughout the crowd, and Lelouch's eyes widen when Suzaku is crouching over, fingers sliding over a metallic  _gun_  placed into his boots—who brings a gun to school?—but goes a bit more rigid when a tall busty blonde woman appears from the balcony, waving her hands frantically in Lelouch's general direction.

" _Vi Britannia_?" Someone hisses under their breath in shock.

"He's a prince!"

"Oh god."

"Lelouch? Prince Schneizel's brother?"

(Why does everybody know about Schneizel's obsession with him?)

"Suzaku Kururugi!" She calls out again, boisterous laughter falling from her lips. "Come up to the club room, okay?"

Suzaku looks over at Lelouch silently, as though asking him if they listen to her (and Lelouch smiles endearingly (on the inside) on how Suzaku thinks absolutely everything is a threat) and Lelouch shrugs. "Bring me to her club room." And Suzaku half-bows, allowing Lelouch to take a step in front of him before they trek their way to this club room. It's a large-ish room (about the size of Lelouch's small study) with a giant table and a bunch of people.

To whom all shoot up and begin bowing like manics.

Except the blonde girl.

Lelouch scowls at her.

"I am Knight of Seven of the Rounds, and this is my charge The Eleventh Prince, Prince Lelouch vi Britann—"

"That's great, I'm Milly Ashford, my dad asked me to introduce you to the school Lelouch. Apparently your brother—"

(From the side some blue haired guy hisses " _Milly_!")

"—Your brother Schneizel called in saying he was worried you wouldn't be able to adapt to peasantry life." And she's beaming all sorts of sly smiles, sly  _knowing_  smiles his way. Lelouch wonders who raised such a barbaric peasant, but her status is well off enough to speak to him, he realizes, and forgives her by swallowing any hostile intent he previously was beginning to regress. Suzaku though, looks more offended than he feels on the inside.

"Miss Ashford it is rude to address the prince by his first name directly." Suzaku says, spine held straight and his chin raised at her as though looking down on her. She doesn't seem to care in the slightest, so he decides to intervene before Suzaku get's into a pissy mood.

"Suzaku, enough." Lelouch shrugs, "It'd be weird if everyone called me  _Your Highness_  in school. You included, though you've already—"

"—Why you're such a lovely and understanding prince." Suzaku interrupts, all polite knight-ish smiles.

His phone vibrates, and Lelouch frowns at the object, looking to Suzaku who rolls his eyes and reaches for his phone (which is in Lelouch's pocket) opening it  _for_  Lelouch. "It is the fifth princess Carine. She says," Suzaku coughs, his brows furrowed in the center to create a bunch of skin folds, " _Be careful at_ —"

"Never mind read it to me later."

He doesn't necessarily care what Carine says to him.

Or why she's talking to him.

Then it clicks, " _Schneizel_ ," he groans under his breath and the people sitting in the room are just watching them with weird curious expressions.

Milly decides to intervene, "Anyways welcome to Ashford!"

"Guys am I late in—" a shrill voice echoes, the door slamming open, and she seems to go rigid when Lelouch lazily turns to look at her with a weird expression (because why are the girl uniforms a nicer colour?) and then her  _hair_  and he feels absolutely nothing but pity for a girl that has to live with orange hair. He could only imagine what snide jokes Clovis would be able to make about her hair and being unable to paint such a hideous colour. "P—P—Prince!" She  _screams_.

Lelouch winces, for her.

"Calm down Shirley, he's a pretty good guy this Lelouch kid!" Lelouch  _twitches_  but then remembers peasants are dumb and he has to forgive their stupidity (like Suzaku kind of). "Ain't that right, Lelouch?"

Lelouch looks to Suzaku for an answer.

Suzaku rolls his eyes, and Lelouch briefly thinks he should gauge them out because Suzaku rolls his eyes at him too much.

"The Prince very much appreciates your kind words."

"Is it a knight's duty to answer for royalty?" Shirley looks actually genuinely curious.

Suzaku snorts, "No, Lelouch is just,  _ah_ , um..."

"Suzaku has more social skills than I."

"He grew up pampered by Schneizel, Shirley." The blue haired guy chips in again. Lelouch twitches. "Remember that whole blog post Prince Schneizel posted and it was all pictures of Lelouch and how cute he is? It was like a day to day diary of Prince Lelouch's life. You were cute though."

"Blog?"

Suzaku offers Lelouch the weird look this time, "Didn't you know he wrote a diary about you online for everybody to see?"

"Ah," Lelouch pauses, frowning. "That explains why everybody is aware of his obsession with me."

And he's not even surprised that Schneizel had stooped so low.

"Yup! Oh and I'm Rivalz, that's Nina" he says pointing to the girl hidden in the corner behind a laptop, "And that's Kallen."

Lelouch takes notice of the red-headed girl that was practically silent the whole exchange, but he has brushed it off as her being shocked of meeting royalty. He understands, his presence is daunting and flawless and it's hard for peasants to take in. Except what he didn't know was that Kallen was shell-shocked because the prince she was aiming to kill practically fell into her lap, and she thought for once God was on her side.

 

 

 


	4. sunlight is always the warmest blanket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> follow my tumblr it called tokyohoes ohohoho ALSO SORRY FOR UPDATING SO LATE, I FORGOT I ALREADY HAD THIS CHAPTER WRITTEN IT WAS JUST SITTING THERE UNTIL I REALIZED TODAY

 

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"He's at your school?" C.C. peers at Kallen curiously, and Kallen inhales sharply trying to withhold herself from screaming  _yes, yes, this is our chance_! Really loudly, because if they hold Lelouch as a  _live_  hostage, Kallen has a feeling they'll have the upper hand on Schneizel,  _finally_.

It's hard not to be excited about something so ground-breaking.

C.C., however, doesn't seem to be sharing the sentiment. Her face is drawn in a long thoughtful look, her eyebrows pulled together as she gently rolls a lump of pizza crust between her teeth. "Leave him for now, it'll be suspicious if we do it so quickly."

"What—" Kallen begins to screech, but Ougi beside her drops a hand on her shoulder, smiling down at her in that fatherly way.

"We need to have patience," Ougi finally says, "First, make friends with the Prince and you have to get him separated from his knight, right?" Kallen de-bristles at that, not sure if she should snap her teeth at C.C. or listen to Ougi's long-ranged plan. She doesn't want things to drag out, she wants things done  _now_ , right this minute. The Black Knights have been doing nothing but losing the battle thus forth, and the spoiled protected prince falls in their laps and they just want to poke at him until the time is right?

Kallen swallows down the fear of there not going to be time. She knows soon enough that'll happen, they're running out of support and Schneizel has been flanking them  _hard_  for awhile now. And now with the added bonus of Lelouch and his asshole traitor White Reaper, Schneizel's favourite is seeming like more of a threat now. Mostly because Suzaku Kururugi leaves a mixed feeling in people; a Japanese dutifully serving the Empire that crushes them.

"So get him away from his knight?" Kallen finally asks, her jaw setting in a firm determined look.

"That would be ideal," C.C. hums, her legs kicking up and her dress falling down to just barely cover her  _ahem_ , private parts. Ougi blushes and turns his head slightly and C.C. lets out a wicked  _gleeful_  giggle. A psychotic one, at that. Kallen furrows her brows at her. "It's just, I'm surprised Schneizel would even  _let_  his favourite pet out in the open."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Public peasant school is about as eventful as Lelouch was expecting.

His studies are incredibly stupidly easy, Suzaku is incredibly stupidly dumb, and the entire student body is full of half-wits that don't even know how to tie their own shoes. Generally, the Britannian population adores Lelouch from afar, he isn't exactly an overly publicly loved prince such as Clovis, Euphemia or Nunnally, but he isn't exactly brushed off with disdain. At most he's referred to ' _Schneizel's favourite_ ' and then he's left alone. But, ever since rumours of his taking of the Japanese Rounds Knight as his bodyguard, the public—from what he can see online—are getting fidgety and cursing out  _Schneizel_  for allowing Lelouch to be protected by their enemy.

Aside from Britannian's regarding Suzaku like a piece of trash, student bodies trying to keep out of Lelouch's way as much as possible and Milly's over insistent personality, his school life has been completely dull. He taps his pen in a gentle soothing rhythm as the teacher speaks, Suzaku beside him struggling to stay awake as she prattles on about Britannia's  _glorious_  conquering of every other culture in the world.

Technically it had been Suzaku's own fault on why he didn't get much sleep, Suzaku's been on edge ever since Euphemia's  _nightly_  visit and has taken to putting a blanket on the ground beside Lelouch's bed with his sword beside his pillow. The first three days Lelouch thought of it as slightly endearing, but now it's just plain out annoying. It wouldn't be so annoying if Suzaku didn't have bags hanging from his eyeballs or how he'd secretly see Suzaku rubbing at his back because he's in pain from sleeping on the floor, and as amusing as it is for Suzaku to be on the floor like a true dog, Lelouch isn't  _inhuman_ e.

And so they had been up till 4 AM arguing about whether or not Suzaku should just sleep in the same bed as Lelouch. A completely useless conversation because in the end Lelouch won. He  _always_  wins. Though, Lelouch was not expecting sleeping with Suzaku to be so...  _warm_  and comforting. He's starting to think he really is going to live up to his jeers and start getting Suzaku's cock inside of him at this rate.

Class ends with the sharp shrill noise of the bell, and Lelouch languidly stabs Suzaku's bicep with his pencil. "Rise and shine, Suzaku."

"Mmm..." Suzaku grumbles, sleepily hitting himself in the face in attempt to rub his eyes and yawns,  _slowly_. The class kind of trails, looking at Suzaku and Lelouch curiously before they eventually leave, the class being left with Kallen and Shirley waiting for them with kind patient smiles.

"Did you nap?" Shirley asks lightly, all smiles on her face as Suzaku picks up Lelouch's things and his own before heading to the door to meet them, Lelouch looking out the window one last time before following after Suzaku like a newborn duckling. He absolutely hates it lately how it seems  _he's_  following Suzaku, and not the other way around. Then again, he just chalks it up to the fact that Suzaku is always moving and Lelouch growing up in a slow-paced environment is slow and patient in everything he does.

"Yeah. Lelouch kept me up all night."

"If you had just slept in my bed in the first place we wouldn't have needed to argue about anything," Lelouch snaps back haughtily.

Kallen gives a soft, very gentle laugh. "Are you two never apart?"

Suzaku snaps up straight at that, sharp canine eyes regarding her like prey and Lelouch blinks languidly. "No," Suzaku says tightly, and Kallen's eyes gleam  _something_ , but Lelouch just puts it up to stupid alpha-traits (that Lelouch has realized Kallen has about the same amount as dumb-Suzaku, it seems) and passes by them with ease, Shirley following him instead and sending the two dog-idiots nervous looks.

"Are they okay?" Shirley asks quietly, Suzaku quickly following after Lelouch and Kallen following Suzaku.

 _Like a train_ , Lelouch muses.

"Who knows," Lelouch drawls. Which is true, he doesn't understand, Suzaku did briefly mention not liking Kallen very much but there wasn't much of an explanation aside from ' _because_ '; which doesn't fit as a reason in Lelouch's dictionary. Amusing as it may be that Suzaku is slowly reverting back to his neanderthal ancestry, Lelouch likes reasons and explanations that aren't just 'I feel it in my gut'. "If I could understand other's then I would have already gotten military power, but I have yet to do that, Shirley." Lelouch finally says with a pleasant smile, one that he's learned from his childhood, the one he uses to appease masses and his over-bearing older brother.  _  
_

"You don't have military power?" Kallen asks this time, seeming genuinely curious.

"Of course not." Lelouch says distractedly, "I've only been the strategist in two battles, both against the Black Knights but that was only because my  _dear_  older siblings were busy with other things, such as squashing said Black Knights and the resistance in India."

"Area—" Suzaku begins.

" _India_ ," Lelouch corrects. "I have no urge to appeal to the Britannian way of divide and conquer."

Kallen, for once, seems actually genuinely  _shocked_. "You don't think Britannia should conquer area's? Aren't you royalty?" Something about her tone is sharper, more  _real_ , and Lelouch likes her a bit more for it.

"Half of my siblings do not agree with my father," this is true, but Schneizel—the only one with  _real_  power—gets off to crushing the hopes of minorities. Odyesseus being the soft-hearted idiot he is, even if  _he's_  the crown prince, will probably be heavily influenced by Schneizel. No matter how much Euphemia whines at him to speak to Schneizel about his distasteful  _actions_ , Lelouch does not like begging or correcting Schneizel. He likes defeating him, not appeasing him.

"Lelouch," Suzaku's tone sounds warning.

"I know, Suzaku." Lelouch breezily says, eyes flickering over Kallen with interest before turning away. "All Hail Britannia," he mockingly says and Shirley shifts uncomfortably.

"All hail," Kallen mimics darkly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Somewhere along their time of Suzaku being Lelouch's little white knight, Lelouch takes it upon himself to begin  _sleeping_  in his supposedly homosexual knight's bed (mostly because Suzaku refused vehemently on sleeping in Lelouch's).

Suzaku is slightly confused, and frustrated, but mostly confused.

Ever since that fight, Lelouch somehow convinced him— _conned_  him—into sleeping with him. Of course he went along with it because he was tired, it was 4 AM and everything Lelouch said made perfect sense. Except the next night he realized his grave mistake, Lelouch is a prince and most of all, Lelouch is  _alluring_. Suzaku would rather not accidentally end up having sex with his charge, mostly because Schneizel would slit his throat. So, Lelouch sensing Suzaku's reluctance to share a bed decided it would be in his best best interest to sleep in  _Suzaku's_  instead, considering Suzaku isn't allowed to sleep in royalties.

"Suzaku?" Lelouch asks, sprawled across the white sheets of Suzaku's bed, and he stands at the doorway of his room, mouth dry and feet anchored in spot. It isn't really all that unusual for Lelouch to break into his room and make himself comfortable but the feeling of seeing Lelouch there some nights, book perched in those long nimble fingers—and imagine what they'd feel like touching him and—and Suzaku tries to keep from self-imploding because he's sure he's been quiet and staring for 5 minutes straight, and this is the third time this week.

But god  _dammit,_  Lelouch's shirt is slightly pulled up leaving a patch of his skin showing clear, milky white skin ready for the touching. It isn't  _fair_ , really, it isn't.

He's starting to think Lelouch is doing shit like this on purpose, because who really lays on their side, shirt exposing their belly, tight jeans hugging Lelouch's thighs in all the right places, legs sprawled across, arms exposed and cheeks slightly flushed because of this goddamn heat. Lelouch's definitely doing it on purpose.

(Somewhere in Suzaku's mind it's taunting him with ' _or maybe you're just a pervert and your charge is being just that, a straight prince_ ' but he ignores it, it's easier to just blame things on Lelouch).

When the tenth minute ticks by, Lelouch sighs loudly and shuts his book, making sure to alert Suzaku who startles awake and—he touches the side of his mouth, is he drooling?  _ooops_ —and Lelouch does not look impressed. Which is never a good thing.

"Um," Suzaku tries for, looking down and squinting at the book Lelouch  _was_  reading, "What's up?"

"Do you plan on gawking at me every time you see me here? Really, is it that surprising, Suzaku?" Lelouch says in a cutting tone, sitting up and his shirt covers the little patch of skin that was exposed, and Suzaku's brain finally begins to function again.

He pulls at his zipper, diverting his eyes as he throws his typical rounds uniform to the floor, sighing in relief when the weight of everything is gone, and he's left in nothing but a tank-top and his boxers, awfully aware that Lelouch is watching him as he pulls up some sweats. He tries to function like a normal person and not a person that wants to jump on his very straight charge and hump him dry.

Because that'd be just weird.

Suzaku just shrugs, finally sitting on the bed beside Lelouch and wrapping his arms around the prince. Sure it probably isn't normal to cuddle a goddamn  _prince_  (Suzaku can already imagine Schneizel ordering his coffin via the midnight shopping channel), but Lelouch let's him, maybe because Suzaku needs the support or maybe because there's that mutual understanding. But for whatever reason why human-hating-Lelouch allows Suzaku to  _cuddle_  him, Suzaku rather not ask and potentially ruin his future chances. He let's his arms wrap tightly around Lelouch's thin waist, pulling Lelouch's back into his chest and forcing his face into the crook of his neck with a relieved sigh.

"Tired?" Lelouch asks, voice cutting but still soft as he brings a hand to cradle the back of Suzaku's head. Definitely not normal. Definitely not.

"Yes." Suzaku swallows dryly, feeling his throat constricting, with a long hesitant sigh Suzaku takes to rubbing his face into the crook of Lelouch's neck pleased when Lelouch doesn't stiffen up or move away, merely allowing Suzaku to just do whatever he pleases with him. It's this sort of power that he has over the prince that makes him shaky in the knee's, falling deeper into his loyalty. He's always known he's the type to serve others, never to be in power of his own decisions but he never thought he'd so selflessly without a single doubt be able to serve Britannian royalty.

Lelouch drags his fingers along the sides of Suzaku's arms, and the motion leaves goosebumps in it's wake. Suzaku shakily exhales, trying to calm himself. "What do you think about Kallen?"

 _Kallen_? Suzaku's mind short-circuits, thoughts rounding in his thoughts like a strange mantra of jealousy. He promptly shoves down the feeling and focuses more on his instincts. When Kallen is around Lelouch every instinct in his body is telling him to shield Lelouch away from her, to drag Lelouch closer to his side and snarl at Kallen until she leaves; she's danger. Suzaku gulps, "If it isn't rude of me to say, then I don't trust her." He finally says, as bluntly but nicely as he possibly can. Nothing good comes out of insulting a prince and his choice in woman, he looks nervously down at Lelouch who's taken to running his nails curiously over Suzaku's wrists, all while being leaned into Suzaku's chest.

"Hm," Lelouch hums, "Then, should I safely assume that she's part of the Black Knights?"

Suzaku blinks. "What?" He asks, slightly miffed. "Why do you think that? I don't trust her but I don't think she's a terrorist, that's a bit—"

Lelouch's shoulder blades dig backwards, head tilting backwards as he offers Suzaku an unimpressed blank stare, "Why else wouldn't you trust her? I've looked into her background information and her mother is Japanese. She's a half. Plus, I've looked at her phone and on her contacts is a woman named 'C.C.' if I remember correctly, that's the name of a terrorist. Quite impressive that you and your animalistic characteristics picked up on it though..."

"She's part of the Black Knights?" Alarmed, bells ringing in his ears, but mostly panic. Lelouch is in the area where Black Knights,  _Black Knights_  that want him captured. He grits his teeth, arms tightening around Lelouch for a second before he reminds himself to be calm. "What do you plan on doing?"

"I'm going to let them capture me." Lelouch finally says.

Suzaku's eyebrows dip forward in confusion, his body going rigid. " _What_?"

"Suzaku," Lelouch finally says pushing away Suzaku's hands from his stomach and standing up, turning to face him and tilting his head a serene,  _fake_  smile on his lips. "How much do you trust me?"

"I am your knight." Suzaku dutifully states, the words blurring in front of his eyes, without even thinking about it his body falls into a bow, "I serve you and only you."

"Even if I said I plan to overthrow the emperor?"

Suzaku's eyes widen, his head snapping up to stare at Lelouch in absolute awe. He knew Lelouch was annoyed at the fact that he's a favourite of his brother's and sister's, but he never thought Lelouch would be the type that would casually say that he plans to overthrow the  _emperor—_ the man that rules the world with an iron fist—he hesitates, if he says yes he'll be considered a traitor and Lelouch may just be testing his loyalty to Britannia, and if he says no and Lelouch is indeed planning to overthrow the emperor then Lelouch may no longer trust him. "I—" he licks his lips, suddenly his tongue feels dry, but he manages to croak the words out, "—I serve you. I'll serve you until I die."

Lelouch looks pleased with the answer, thin arms coming to wrap around Suzaku's neck as he pulls his head into his chest. "You know, one may consider this to be ' _imprinting_ '. Do you know? There's a story where a boy finds a wolf and this boy is the first person to ever show the wolf kindness, so the wolf follows him and trusts only this one human."

"Are you saying that I'm the wolf, Lelouch?"

Lelouch makes a weird hybrid sound at the back of his throat, knee's coming up to nudge Suzaku's legs apart so he can crawl onto the bed. Suzaku blushes at the position, at first he would have never pegged Lelouch as the touchy-feely type or maybe Lelouch  _isn't_  the touchy type and he's only playing a game with Suzaku. He never really does understand Lelouch's reasoning behind his actions, nor does he particularly  _need_  to know. All he needs to do is serve. Lelouch makes a short push and Suzaku falls back into the bed, Lelouch sitting over him and gazing down at him with an unreadable expression. "I don't plan on overthrowing the empire, that would involve killing my siblings."

"Then why are you letting yourself get captured?"

"For amusement," Lelouch drawls, fingers treading through Suzaku's hair as though to distract him.

"Lelouch—" Suzaku begins, reaching out to grip his wrists and to stop whatever train of thought Lelouch may have been conjuring. He doesn't like it, he doesn't like this plan one bit, if Lelouch is captured they'll be  _apart_ —he won't be able to protect Lelouch properly, he'll be on the outside while Lelouch is on the inside. He can't function that way. He can't.

"Suzaku." Lelouch interrupts, eyes glowering down on him with absolute authority and the look shoots a shiver straight down his spine, a reminder that Lelouch isn't some helpless princess that's been locked up in a tower all his life. He's a prince, and he's been raised learning how to wage war to get what he wants, how to manipulate people with a smile, and how to command those that work for him. His look softens a bit, tilting his head so his ox hair spills over his shoulder, "Will be you be able to find me no matter where I go? Can you promise me that with absolute confidence?"

His hands curl into fists, and Suzaku finds his heart beating wildly, a steady drum in an excited rhythm. "I can find you, no matter where you go." And he refuses to look into how much of a confession that sounds like, because Lelouch smiles softly at him, nodding with a pleased ' _Good_ '. He isn't lying though; no matter where Lelouch goes he can hunt him down, he'll follow him to the end of this world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Pass it here!" Lelouch blinks at the loud cry, watching as his classmates make a move to try and kick the ball over to Suzaku—who's apparently oddly talented at kicking around a black and white ball—and Lelouch can already smell the disdain from his classmates because the best member in their class is the only Eleven in the entire school. He blinks, leaning into the tree he's taken to sitting under as he reads his book as his classmates run around like children, Shirley, Suzaku and Rivalz apparently finding it incredibly amusing to be doing this with the belief that Lelouch is terrible at sports.

(He is, but they don't need to know that).

Suzaku's team makes another score, to which he calls to leave the game—shooting a quick look in Lelouch's direction—before explaining to the teacher ' _I'm just a knight_ ' or something similar, and Lelouch can already imagine the timid self-degrading things Suzaku is probably spewing out all so he can return to his prince's side. It takes about 35 seconds of arguing before the teacher finally visibly resigns and Lelouch closes his book with a short curt snap, allowing himself to curl forwards and allow his arms to languidly rise as Suzaku jogs slowly towards him, smiling and sweaty and radiating some odd aura of  _happiness_. He doesn't understand why his heart thumps a single time or why his fingers burn with the urge to tug Suzaku close to him, but he follows those instincts as so.

Suzaku stops right in front of him, crouching down just slightly to run his thumb across the side of his face, smiling when Lelouch tentatively places his hands on the sides of Suzaku's arms, a single bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face and Lelouch can feel his throat constrict, just slightly. "Why did you stop playing? Your team was winning by a long-shot because of you."

"I can't get too tired out or else I won't be able to protect you properly," Suzkau admits gently, finally straightening himself out and Lelouch marvels on how his hands fall from Suzaku's arms, fingers feeling lost without the heat. He loses himself for a moment before his mind finally clicks properly back into place, hands falling onto his lap before his eyes are darting over to the direction of his classmates that're staring at them with giant wide eyes, and for some reason Shirley is just standing there gaping in the middle of the soccer field  _blushing_. "Lelouch?"

"Sit." He demands abruptly, narrowing his eyes on Shirley for a brief second before deciding that filling his mind with the possibilities on why she's acting strange—like the rest of his classmates—is beyond his royal minds comprehension. He takes to looking back up at Suzaku, who snorts before plopping down beside Lelouch without question, his arm naturally curling around the prince's waist as though doing the movement unconsciously. Lelouch finds this all very strange, really, he does. Throughout his entire childhood he would spend hours planning how to get people to  _stop_  touching him—cough, Schneizel—except with Suzaku he's always trying to think of ways to get Suzaku to touch him more naturally.

 _Maybe Cornelia was wrong, maybe I am gay_.

He sighs, reaching for his book and pulling himself upright so he can curl into Suzaku's chest before opening his book. "You smell," he says distractedly, flipping to the next page when he realizes that he had been reading that same sentence for 20 minutes when he was watching Suzaku play.

"Should I go change?"

"I would have to go with you, wouldn't I? So no."

"I feel gross." Suzaku pauses, fingers drumming softly against Lelouch's hipbone, muttering things such as ' _no Shirley pass it to_ — _'_  and other things about the game occurring in front of them that Lelouch just drones out as background noise, instead choosing to focus on the body heat that surrounds him like a warm comforting blanket. His eyelids feel heavy, dazedly he realizes, reminding himself that it's okay if he naps because the person beside him will protect him no matter what.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Please do not touch the prince, Milly." Suzaku's voice is clear-cut, like an alarm that wakes him from a deep lulling slumber. Lelouch groggily cracks open his eyes, hands clutching at the fabric that is laying underneath him and the only thought he can conjure properly is,  _Suzaku_. His panic lasts a brief 2 seconds before he's reminded that he's sleeping  _on_ Suzaku and that currently he has nothing to worry about.

"You two are absolutely," she pauses and Lelouch watches as her lips curl upwards in an evil witch-like smile,  _burn her_ , he thinks, " _Adorable_."

"Please do not touch the prince, Milly." Suzaku repeats, completely poker face and Lelouch leans away from where Milly's hands are reaching out to cup his face and  _touch_  him, she smiles, big and wide, before she's standing up brushing a lock of her golden hair over her shoulder, a pensive look on her face. Lelouch stays laying on Suzaku, his face being drawn into nuzzling Suzaku's upper thigh as his knight has a sturdy protective hand on the arch of his back. He almost finds himself capable of ignoring Milly's unwanted presence in favour of savouring the heat pooling from the palm of Suzaku's hand.

"I'm going to write fanfiction about you two," Milly declares suddenly.

"Is that so? How daring of you." Lelouch drawls, ignoring the prominent fact that he has no  _idea_  what fanfiction even means. He rolls onto his other side, back turning to face Milly. "Leave."

She giggles darkly, "If you say so."

(Lelouch at the moment doesn't realize his mistake).

 

 

 

 

 


	5. hide and seek

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suzaku is a good doggy.  
> Woof woof.

 

 

 

"What is this?"

Suzaku doesn't look up from where he's wiping off blood off of his sword, briefly he does glance but that's just to get a quick look at Lelouch's bare thin pale  _beautifu_ —Suzaku chokes—legs, yes. Lelouch has legs.

Anyway.

"What is what?"

Lelouch goes silent, which is Lelouch for ' _don't speak to me for like five minutes_ ' and Suzaku takes it all in stride, slowly standing up and dusting off his rounds uniform before looking to where Lelouch is laying flat on his belly, playing around with his tablet with a thick frown.

Slowly it turns into a grin.

Suzaku doesn't like the look, not one bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Prince Schneizel!" Some basic grunt runs into Schneizel's  _private_ —and Schneizel likes to think it's called his  _private_  study for a good reason—study, all flabbergasted and scared looking. If Schneizel actually knew his employee's by their names and looks instead of their generic number tag on their chests, he'd realize his employee is five shades whiter than usual. But he doesn't, so all he can think is about pressing that little red button on the corner of his desk in hopes his gun squad will run in quick enough to get rid of the problem so he can continue to write a lovely 60k worded essay on how Lelouch likes things clean and about their maid that Schneizel had to " _dispose"_  of because she wasn't very good at cleaning. #893 employee frantically hands Schneizel over a tablet, and Schneizel sighs as he picks it up to look at what his guard is so frantic about.

He pales.

The front cover is a picture of  _Lelouch_ —a fantastic angle of his brother, he'll have to add it to his collection— _except_ ; his dearest, most precious brother has his thin arms hanging over his very,  _very_  gay knight's shoulders, the picture is taken quite a few miles away, but even though there's slight blurry-ness, one can tell Suzaku Kururugi is blushing and that Lelouch is smiling coyly, his fingertips raking over the back of Suzaku's neck as though he  _deserves_  to be touched so familiarly. What shocks, angers, destroys Schneiel (however one would interpret the sudden distraught emotions that flood over Schneizel can be interpreted differently) is the giant bolded title on the web newspaper.

" **PRINCE LELOUCH AND HIS HANDSOME NEW BOYFRIEND** "

 _Boyfriend_? Suzaku is a mere lowly  _disgusting_  Eleven knight and he  _dares_  to actually touch his precious little brother?

Schneizel, remaining perfectly calm, tosses the tablet across the room where it shatters upon impact of the wall, and smiles kindly to employee #893. Employee #893 smiles back, though it's more of a forced 'you-are-my-crazy-employer-and-i-don't-want-to-die' sort of smile. "Summon Knight Kururugi for me, please."

The door closes loudly behind his employee scampering out of the room as quickly as he can and Schneizel cups his face moaning to himself ' _what a terrible day_ , oh  _what a terrible day_ '.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kallen arrives to school and immediately realizes that Suzaku isn't with Lelouch.

 _A chance_ , her brain screams, disregarding the fact that there's a giant blond male with a sword on his person standing beside said prince. But it isn't  _Suzaku_. Suzaku has a keen sense and he'd never give Kallen the chance to be alone with Lelouch, though she's not certain about the replacement she's absolutely certain no one else will be as keen to what is around Lelouch as Suzaku was.

_To: Zero_

_I'm going to capture him today. His Knight has been replaced_.

"Where's Suzaku?" Rivalz finally asks, chewing on the straw of his juice box. And she's glad Rivalz is the one to ask because he just seems so stupid, the information would never benefit him in any sort of form, he's harmless looking compared to her. If she was to start asking questions like that everybody in the room would be curious. Lelouch looks briefly annoyed, shooting his current Knight a dirty look.

"This is Gino.  _Knight_  Kururugi has gone off without reporting me of where he'll be." Lelouch practically hisses, and Kallen can see the venom dripping from his tone. She doesn't understand why Suzaku would suddenly just leave Lelouch's side or why Lelouch has no idea where Suzaku is, but if there's a chance, she'll take it. And right now, this will probably be her only— _no_ , the  _Black Knights_  only chance in capturing the Kingdom's favourite, Lelouch vi Britannia.

"Nice to meet you all, Suzaku asked me to watch over the Prince here until he returns, so I hope we'll get alone."

"You're really carrying a sword!" Shirley says, her tone impressed. "Suzaku never carried a sword on him."

"Suzaku carried secretly hidden knives and guns on his body." Lelouch says, explaining to her in his educating tone. "Since Sir Weinberg isn't officially enrolled in this school and acting only as a protector he is allowed to carry a weapon as long as it is for the sole purpose of protecting me."

The sounds go through Kallen's ears, her brain turning gears at rapid fire.

How she'd go about kidnapping Lelouch, she doesn't know. She can get him alone easily enough, she can already smell the idiot oozing off of Suzaku's replacement. But how she'd actually get Lelouch  _out_  of the school grounds without Gino chopping her down, she isn't so sure. She frowns, glaring outside the window. Maybe she could ask somebody to bring a car around and knock Lelouch out before he can call for help and drag him into the car. Or maybe she could just kill him.  _No_ , that would do no good. If they killed Lelouch she could only imagine the hurt Suzaku and Schneizel would dish out, the only reason Suzaku  _isn't_  a huge part in the military at the moment is because of the leash that ties him to Lelouch.

If they break that leash, a wild beast will be on their heels.

They need to kidnap Lelouch, bring him into their headquarters and make demands.

_From: Zero_

_Bring him outside somehow, I'll do the rest._

Kallen stares at shock at the message, she wasn't exactly expecting C.C. to become directly involved, C.C. hardly does well,  _anything_. It unnerves her but she sends a quick okay. Now, it's getting Lelouch alone.  _  
_

"Oh, time for class!" Shirley says, waving at Gino and Lelouch. "I'll see you all later."

Rivalz shortly follows her lead, Milly bouncing off somewhere along with him. Kallen takes to following Lelouch, chatting to him about safe things such as classes and how he's going to study for his exams (" _I'm not_ ," he says) all to the leading moment where she realizes: she does have something Gino will probably be bashful over.  _  
_

"I... I need to talk to you," She looks over to Gino, purposely making herself blush, lowering her tone into a soft feminine sorts, " _Alone_."

"Alone?" Lelouch looks suspicious, probably thinking of the multiple growls Suzaku's managed to shoot her way. For a moment she thinks he'll disregard her, but Gino—and she was right in suspecting him in being an idiot—hits the prince straight across the back.

"Get going, I'll be right here, just yell if you need me, Your Highness." He grins wolfishly, and she wonders how he'll feel when he realizes that because of him his prince will be kidnapped. She's sure if Suzaku was here, he'd be reaching for Gino's throat. Lelouch sends him an accusative look, Kallen just forces herself to blush more. She manages to get Lelouch outside, just near a tree that she angles Lelouch to be out of Gino's sight. Gino is close, but not close enough.

_Form: Zero_

_I'm going to pretend to attack you, too. So distract Gino by screaming while I shove him into the van_.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Lelouch asks boredly, but his eyes scream otherwise. He's interested.

"You see..." She starts, her eyes falling onto C.C. that's sitting on the branch just over their heads. She didn't even realize. Kallen forces neutrality, not wanting to give away their plan. She cocks her head to the side, smiling. "With Suzaku gone, this is my chance, you know?" She says, and Lelouch narrows his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm part of the Black Knights." She poses her best smile, Lelouch's eyes widening for a brief fraction before Kallen forces herself to scream as loud as she can as C.C. drops down and hits Lelouch on the back of the head.

C.C. pushes her to the side, forcing Kallen on the ground so as Gino comes rushing he pays two seconds too many asking Kallen if she's okay before Lelouch is being thrown into a van.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Terrible news, Prince Schneizel!"

Suzaku's head snaps in the direction of a guard rushing into the room, a private room, and his stomach sinks because the situation has to be  _dire_  for a mere low ranked guard to interrupt a very important meeting. He shakes off the feeling, it's only been 2 days since he's gone, Lelouch couldn't have already gotten himself kidnapped in the  _two_  days he's been gone. Then again, Lelouch  _is_  slightly deliciate. Suzaku gulps, staring over to the guard.

"What?" Schneizel asks, irritation leaking into his tone.

The guard salutes, his voice quivering, "We have received word from Knight Weinberg that—" Suzaku stands up abruptly, chair clattering to the ground and everybody present—mostly royalty  _related_  to Lelouch—go silent, Schneizel's fists clenching. The guard swallows roughly, and Suzaku's lips tremble, "—P—Prince Lelouch has been k—kidnapped."

He should have never have left. He knew Lelouch was being targeted, he  _knew_  Lelouch wanted to be kidnapped, he should have angered Schneizel: he should have never have trusted Lelouch's safety with anybody but himself. He see's red, his animalistic gaze turning on her in a flat second. C.C., present, leans back in her seat, a large cat-grin slowly creeping on her lips.

"You only got word now?" She finally drawls, carefully. "My, my, news sure does come slowly. But I guess Gino was preoccupied by being stabbed in the gut."

" _You_ —" Suzaku hisses venomously, "I will—"

"You won't. If I get killed at this meeting I have entrusted my soldiers with the task of be-heading the prince and sending the body parts to the royal family, so you can bury him. We have that much tact, at least." He goes still, the urge to bring Lelouch back to him  _alive_  out-weighing the urge to scale the table and strangle her here. She smiles, head cocking to the side as green locks drape across her shoulder. "Ah, yes, that's the reaction I want."  _  
_

"What do you want?" Schneizel finally demands. His fingers interlacing with each other, a well practiced,  _confident_  smirk taking place of the disturbed blood-lust look that Suzaku has still yet to wipe from his face.

"I have a feeling asking for Japan is asking for too much," C.C. says slowly, tilting her head to the side, mocking the pretense of thinking.

"I will give you nothing." Schneizel finally says, "I can easily destroy you and take him back."

"And I will kill him," C.C. says. "His life holds no worth to me if you aren't going to negotiate with m—"

"I will." Suzaku drops to his knee's, and he doesn't know what possesses him to do it, but the thought of Lelouch's life ending makes his heart fall to his stomach, a dark feeling wrapping in his muscles. It makes the feeling of life heavy, unwanted. "I will trade places with him. Behead me. I will do anything you want me to, but please return him to me."

"Anything? Even if I told you to kill all the royalty here?" She muses, and Suzaku doesn't hesitate, pulling out his gun in a brief second and pointing it straight at the back of Schneizel's head, mind going blank. C.C. looks impressed, her golden eyes gleaming with hidden,  _amused_  words. She crosses her legs, leaning backwards. He has no idea why Schneizel brought him here to help with negotiations, all of a sudden Schneizel was demanding he leave Lelouch's safety to Sir Weinberg and Suzaku was so  _stupid, stupid, stupid_. He knew he should've refused.

"Does the prince really mean that much to you, White Reaper? You're a Japanese, and yet you treasure the Britannia family so dearly... I wonder why that is."

" _Kururugi_ ," Schneizel hisses, low and warning.

"We can trade prisoners." Cornelia finally says, bringing out her sword and aiming it in Suzaku's direction. "Knight Seven, lower your weapon or you will be removed."

"I will bring Lelouch back."

"Trade prisoners? How many do you have?" C.C. interrupts, leaning back into her chair with clasped hands.

"59." Schneizel says smoothly, smiling. "I will also guarantee the protection of the Eleven citizens. Would that suffice?"

"Zero-sama," one of the Black Knights positioned behind C.C. finally says, and Suzaku's eyes widen, his body posture going rigid. He knew it. He  _smelt_  it pooling off of her in waves, the smell of blood and betrayal. Lelouch was right is all he can think before his eyes snap in the direction of the guard, bearing his teeth at her like an animal.

"Kallen," he hisses, " _You._  You're the reason he's—"

"Don't worry, we haven't touched a hair on his pretty hair." Kallen interrupts, shaking her head at Suzaku and murmuring something akin to ' _disgusting_ '.

"Oh? Where's that proof, you could have killed him." Cornelia finally interrupts. "Allow us to speak to him."

"Fine," C.C. says, waving her hand dismissively as one of the Black Knights nod stoically behind her, reaching for their phone and dialing somebody's number. The conversation is brief but Suzaku sits on edge the whole time, his hands practically shaking. What if Lelouch is hurt? What if they hurt him? What if Lelouch's in pain and suffering? His blood boils at the mere thought of it all. She makes a motion to the TV, and enters in a number to call and in a brief moment, Lelouch is before the screen, sitting on the a bright red couch with his arms crossed over his chest, scowling.

"I see you've successfully met my idiot siblings and my idiot knight, you witch." Lelouch hisses, his tone just as condescending and pissed off as it always is in situations he can't seem to control. Suzaku's heart squeezes in relief. He doesn't look injured, practically immaculate aside from the hand-cuffs on his wrists. "I refuse to be owe my brother a favour, Suzaku come and fetch me this very instant."

Their previous conversation flashes before his eyes and Suzaku bows, the action coming out so naturally. "I understand."

"Are you kidding me you don't even know where he is!" Kallen yells, sounding ready to chuck something at the both of them. Suzaku hesitates, he doesn't know where Lelouch is, but he's sure he could figure it out quickly enough. More than anything, he wants to reach out and touch Lelouch, to bring him into his arms and slaughter all those that dared to lay their hands on him in the first place.

"You only said if I kill you they'll kill Lelouch, that means torture is an option," Suzaku says darkly, fingers slipping around a small blade that was hidden up his sleeve. Torturing C.C. or Kallen probably wouldn't work, but the male beside them looks weak and fragile, he could easily torture someone like that into submission. He can feel his mind going blank, the urge to shove a blade into somebody's body filling his heart up.

 _Retrieve me_ , Lelouch's words are meant to be obeyed, and he will obey them even if it costs the lives of millions.

"Not needed, Knight Kururugi." Schneizel interrupts. Smiling gently to Lelouch, who looks like a small kitten that's gone without a toy for hours. "Zero has agreed in exchanging prisoners for you, please behave until then, Lelouch."

"Not needed. My blood hound beside you can find me easily enough." Lelouch hisses in reply.

"I will retrieve you without fail," Suzaku mutters. He's sure. If Lelouch wishes for it he can do anything.

Lelouch's eyes twinkle, his lips being pulled into a small endearing smile. "I suggest a game, witch." Lelouch finally says, leaning back into the chair.

"You're pretty confident for somebody that tried to suffocate me last night, Lulu." She says, her voice cheeky. "Plus how you started crying all cutel—"

"I did no such thing." He interrupts, and Suzaku glances to Schneizel who looks absolutely  _smitten_  over the idea of Lelouch crying because of being scared. He grits his teeth. "It will be like our previous battle, except higher stakes."

"And what is this game?"

"How many prisoners are there?"

"59, he says." C.C. says, her expression looking bored.

"Very well, then, Suzaku will have 59 hours to locate me and arrive in front of me. Every hour he goes over, ten prisoners will be released." Suzaku's eyes goes wide, his body shaking. He's always known Lelouch plays risque games, the damned prince has done it plenty of times before, but  _this_  is too much.

"Why should I when I can get all the prisoners released without playing your game? If anything I'm at a disadvantage."

"Yes, but, Suzaku will be doing this alone. Wouldn't it benefit you to possibly have both the White Reaper and his prince captured? I'm quite sure you're tired of us making  _miracles_. Plus, there'll only be about 6 extra hours before time is up, and then you'll have all the prisoners released  _and_  you'll still have me."

"For a hostage you sure are annoying," C.C. sighs. "Fine, I'll play your game Lelouch. Considering you were a cute docile kitten last night."

" _Zero_ —!"

"Can you do it, Suzaku?" Lelouch finally asks, eyes turning on his knight. Suzaku feels lightening run through his body.  _Can I_? He thinks, but the doubt is instantly washed away: he is Lelouch's knight. He can accomplish whatever his prince wishes for. "I'm sure not even a little salt can confuse you're canine senses."

He drops to one knee, bowing as deeply as he can. "I will not disappoint you."

"No knightmares," C.C. adds in sharply. "If I spot you in your knightmare I'll cut off your precious prince's arms."

She stands up abruptly, the line falling dead as her robes pool around her feet. Her smile is psychotic, a tight smile, one full of secrets and lies, and Suzaku shrinks under that look, he always knew Lelouch was one to play dangerous games, but he's starting to feel like playing games with the leader of the Black Knights isn't exactly a game they should be moving the pieces around for. Or maybe that's exactly what Lelouch wants, Lelouch did say he wants to Black Knights to win...

"Well?" C.C. asks in a long drawl, her golden irises sparkling underneath the dull lighting, "How will you find him?"

"You better find him, Sir Kururugi." Schneizel interrupts, narrowing his eyes, "I am not required to play my younger brother's game. We will make the exchange for the prisoners and Lelouch in 5 hours, would that suffice Zero?"

"Schneizel, just wait." Cornelia interrupts, pushing her hair to the side as he eyes C.C. up and down. "You said that Lelouch was a docile kitten?"

"Yes. He's been quite the house guest." C.C. murmurs sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest, "Choose. His game or the exchange, I don't have all the time in the world."

"Brother," Cornelia finally says, side-eyeing Schneizel, "I believe that Lelouch allowed himself to be captured, why else would he purposely change knights and suggest a deal for his exchange?"

"Of course he allowed himself to be captured." Schneizel chuckles, brushing his cape off of his lap and standing up, offering C.C. a polite tight smile, his eyes gleaming with amusement. "Lelouch loves acting out whenever he can. But alas, the fact remains that my precious little brother is captured. We'll stick to the exchange, five hours from now hmm... I guess we should choose a neutral area. How about we have both Knight Seven and one of your Black Knights stand guard here until the time slot comes up?"

"So no one can tamper with the place?" C.C. asks, seemingly amused. "Fine, but he won't be happy with our deal."

"I highly doubt you want Sir Kururugi hot on your heels looking for my brother." Schneizel smiles, taking a short turn and raising his hand for Kanon to follow him. Suzaku blinks, unsure of what just happened in front of him nor is he interested being completely honest. All he cares about is retrieving Lelouch.

"I'm going to find Lelouch."

Schneizel looks over, frowning. "Cornelia?"

"I will stand guard over the area." She sighs, shooting a disdained look in Suzaku's direction.

Suzaku drapes his shoulders with his rounds cape, eyes flashing dangerously in the direction of C.C. with a venomous look. He should have killed her when he had the chance. He should've. He straightens his back and bows his head slightly before disappearing.

 _Come fetch me, Suzaku_.

Lelouch had demanded it to be done, and so his wish will be granted.

Suzaku hesitates, standing outside the building and frowning.

_But where do I start..._


	6. sex and possession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ayeeeee.
> 
> a lot of u think im not going to continue this story, that isn't true
> 
> i just take centuries to update lmFAO
> 
> also i don't rlly write smut... i mean.. i will one day... just not today...

 

 

He's bored.

There's really no other way to put the feeling.

_Boredom_. He would've thought with his life hanging on the line he would be estactic, playing mind games and all the fun joyful things he can't do in a morale bound school ground. But _here_ , well, morale is about blowing shit up and screaming 'Death to Schneizel'—which Lelouch wholly supports that movement, he even donates—but despite these damned Black Knights being morally bankrupt how come he hasn't even been slapped across the face? Suzaku isn't going to be very hot and bothered if Lelouch doesn't even have a bleeding cracked lip from being smacked around a bit. And _fuck_ , Lelouch would prefer Suzaku hot and bothered and violent over any other possible emotion Suzaku may have when he tracks down Lelouch.

"How long until 2 hours are up?" He drawls slowly.

Tamaki, one of the idiots officially guarding him, looks at him oddly. "Only 20 minutes have passed since the phone call..."

Lelouch groans loudly in pain, head thrown back as he stares at the ceiling trying to imagine what kind of torture he's going to put Suzaku through when he see's his stupid idiotic homo Knight again. The _dog_ , had the _gall_ to even think of leaving his master's side without approval or prior notice—and Lelouch was not happy to be informed by his older sister Euphemia that he would have a new knight for a brief period of time—and he _knows_ Schneizel would get pissy over the whole boyfriend article, but his damned brother has no right switching his knights without his approval.

Though he guesses it's for the best. He managed to get captured by the Black Knights, established his views and opinions, and now he has a good future line of contact with C.C. so the two of them can speak strategy. Lelouch may not be a fan of his father, or Schneizel, or any of his siblings, really, but he does know that their current ways of handling isn't going to work in the world.

The Black Knights is like a clean slate to fixing these issues to him. Plus, all the military fun he misses out in Britannian wars because of Schneizel, well, now he'll have that fun with the Black Knights.

It all works out in the end.

He wiggles his wrists, sprawling out on the couch as kicks up his legs. "Should I go stand outside?"

"Why would you do that? Might as well wait here." Tamaki says, distracted by his phone game.

"Suzaku might kill a good portion of the army," Lelouch smiles, dark, wicked and knowing. He isn't joking, Suzaku probably will slaughter a majority of them to reach Lelouch even if he's missing a few limbs. Tamaki blinks, slightly disturbed by that prospect. Lelouch rolls his eyes and dials Suzaku's phone number and—

"Bastards I swear to god when I find you—"

"Yes, all fine and dandy and as much as it makes me hot under the collar to see you possessive and worried, I'm fine." Lelouch waits a good eight seconds for Suzaku to collect himself. "Allow my brother to do the hostage exchange."

"Lelouch—"

"Yes, Suzaku?" Lelouch glances at his nails, he might need to redo them soon, they are looking rather grubby. Suzaku exhales loudly.

"No. I want to see you right now."

Lelouch looks to where Tamaki is keenly watching the conversation, "Fine. I'll text you the address. Behave, Suzaku."

"I understand."

The line goes dead and Lelouch sighs loudly.

"Tell them that my white knight is coming to rescue me."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Suzaku enters the room all the air is taken out of it.

Lelouch didn't think he'd actually miss his ironic white knight, he doesn't know what he's supposed to say. Mock Suzaku? Smile? Smirk? It all seems silly, Suzaku's hands sliding over his face as he inhales the space near Lelouch, as though to check that he's real, and Lelouch's lungs cave and he can't _breathe_. Most of the time Suzaku avoids as much physical contact as possible, as to appear professional at all times, but at the moment Suzaku is literally _plastered_ himself onto Lelouch, long muscular arms wrapping around Lelouch's waist and pulling him tightly against his own chest, and even Tamaki coughs in embarrassment from watching them be reunited.

"You—" Suzaku begins, voice dies off as his nose comes to nuzzle the crook of Lelouch's neck, and Lelouch stays placid for the moments in which Suzaku takes to calm himself down. Lelouch mentally compares it to a dog that had long been separated from it's owner, simply reconfirming and sniffing it's owner until satisfied. After 20 minutes have passed, though, Lelouch promptly decides that Suzaku has had long enough.

"I'm simply making connections, Suzaku." Lelouch says softly, petting the back of Suzaku's head and smirks to C.C. that has come to round the corner, long green hair swooshing around her like a cape as she openly smiles at the public display of affection. Lelouch allows it mostly because it plays in his favour: the Black Knights fear the White Reaper's wrath, they would be even more right to be fearful of Suzaku's wrath if Lelouch was to be actually injured by the Black Knights. As long as Suzaku appears unusually loyal to Lelouch, the Black Knights would be wise to remain loyal to Lelouch as well.

"Cuddling outside of our headquarters?"

Suzaku, despite Lelouch's expectations, doesn't whip around and growl at C.C. like the wild animal Lelouch was expecting him to behave as. Simply remaining curled around Lelouch, as a literal human blanket. In the middle of August. Whilst they're both covered head to toe in clothes. Sweating. Cuddling. Body pressed to body, and Lelouch groans. "Suzaku, as much as I am fond of this—" Lelouch pauses, somewhat coughing, "—display of affection, I am hot. And you are disgustingly hot."

"I thought they might've hurt you."

Lelouch blinks, his petting of Suzkau's head stopping hesitantly.

"I wouldn't know what to do if you were—" a pause, and Lelouch wonders if Suzaku will break out into tears, "Why didn't you bring me with you? I would follow you anywhere. Whether it's toppling the empire or slaughtering the Black Knights, I only serve you, so—"

"I am aware, Suzaku." Lelouch sighs out, tugging Suzaku's head back and bringing a hand to delicately tap Suzaku's cheek. "It was simply a strategy to get caught in the first place. I had no intentions of keeping you out of my plans, so stop fretting."

"What a loyal dog," C.C. says coyly, the edges of her lips pulled into a tight cocky smile, but inside Lelouch see's past her calm facade. He's sure she wasn't expecting Suzaku to be _this_ loyal to him, though he wasn't really even expecting it. A part of him feels that guilty feeling rising like bile to his throat, that _knowing_ that Suzaku isn't loyal to Lelouch because of any reason but Lelouch has imprinted him: the first person to bring calm in Suzaku's stormy life. "Enter, we need to talk strategy."

Suzaku's arms loosen from around Lelouch's neck, soft fingertips coming to press against Lelouch's hipbones, their bodies a mere two centimeters apart. Lelouch has always liked these moments the most: when Suzaku is subconsciously marking Lelouch as his territory, rough but soft touches, their bodies near each other, Suzaku's eyes watching Lelouch and _only_ Lelouch as though the rest of the world has collapsed around them. Lelouch looks to C.C., smirking to her as though to remind her: _Yes, this is my knight, he will do anything for me._ He needs to remind her that maybe alone he is nothing to be feared aside from his mental capacities, but him and Suzaku together are the force of a thousand men.

They enter the building the same way, Suzaku's hands remaining on some part of Lelouch's body as they walk (upper arm, hips, hands) and Lelouch almost amuses himself with the idea of him sitting on Suzaku's lap, coy arms hanging from Suzaku's shoulders as his legs are sexily crossed. One of those extremely smart manipulative millionaire house-wife poses, but sits down Suzaku beside him with a lowered hand, and allows Suzaku to settle with keeping his palm pressed on the upper part of his thigh.

"Your sister is smart, she already knows that you had planned this."

"Schneizel knows as well," Lelouch says, looking to his nails in almost a bored way. There is no way his obsessed older brother _wouldn't_ know what Lelouch was aiming for. Lelouch may be a genius, but Schneizel is a mastermind.

"And this doesn't seem to bother you too much."

Lelouch sighs, "He'll still release the hostages. At most all he'll do is lock me away in a dungeon for a few weeks if I overstep my boundaries and become a ' _traitor_ ' to the empire. Schneizel holds the most power amongst my siblings, and even if I were to slaughter the other's he would never let harm befall me."

"Such confidence in the people around you loving you to such an extent," C.C. drawls, and Lelouch watches as she leans back, heels flopping on top of the conference table as she looks up, her eyes glazed over as though looking to a very far away place. "If your brother betrays you? If your knight betrays you? It scares me how little power you'll suddenly have, Lelouch. It's more scary that your willing to bet on these people's love for you in order to win."

Lelouch straightens up, a hot coil of _anger_ flooding through him. It does not matter if Schneizel betrays him—he expects nothing less from his sadistic older brother—but for her to _imply_ that Suzaku, of all the people in his life, would betray him is ludicrous. If Suzaku was to betray him he might as well be a dead-man, for him to lose the trust of somebody so dog-like, he'd have to become a monster of a person. "Witch, you—"

"I thought you were a Britannian knight, Suzaku? Or have you abandoned that post simply to lust after Lelouch?"

Suddenly Suzaku looks as though he was awaken from a dream, as though he'd just been sleep-walking, and the look of sudden clarity within Suzaku's eyes scares Lelouch. _Maybe his loyalty for me only runs so deep_... what can he do to make Suzaku more loyal to him? Spread his legs? Whisper sweet nothing's into Suzaku's ear as they kiss in the dead of night? But as Suzaku wakes from his unrest of Lelouch being captured, he simply glares at C.C. "Your implying I'll betray Lelouch when you're the one that's most likely to do that, _Zero_."

"How am I assured that you aren't simply spying for the emperor? Or even Lelouch's big brother?"

Suzaku actually looks momentarily baffled by the question, and Lelouch ends up rolling his eyes. Reassured of Suzaku's loyalty to him once again, Suzaku is a simple idiot that wears his emotions on his sleeves. If Suzaku was spying on him, Lelouch would know. Heck, Suzaku would hate Schneizel a lot less if Suzaku was working for him. _I'll have to reward him_ , Lelouch thinks, feeling a deep coil of _want_ suddenly settle in his stomach. God, if his brother truly knew the extent of his and Suzaku's relationship, he would probably faint.

"Suzaku is mine." Lelouch says, voice coming in authoritative booming fashion. "If you wish to work with me, you will have to work with my knight as well, witch."

She simply grunts, wicked smile on her lips as she waves her hand in the air.

"Is that so?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He's decided he's been waiting long enough. It's tiring, this game of chaste touches when all Lelouch has done is give signs to Suzaku to touch _more_ boldly. Suzaku holds him, kisses his neck and snuggles into Lelouch all throughout the dead of night—and every morning Lelouch pretends to be asleep as Suzaku is still half-asleep, ragging hard morning wood pressed against his ass until Suzaku wakes up hot and embarrassed and shuffles away to wank himself off, and usually about five minutes after the wanking Lelouch finally raises— _why_ Lelouch hasn't simply woken up one of the mornings as Suzaku's dick is stiff against his back and promptly woken up Suzaku to his lips around Suzaku's cock, he doesn't know.

But he promptly decides to fix it.

Maybe because C.C.'s words leave trails of doubt and he needs to reconfirm Suzaku's loyalty to him: Suzaku is that type of guy, the guy that'll fret and protect those he's dating to death. Everybody else in the world could be damned. Sex would be the ultimate act of ownership, of love and passion. Suzaku would never betray the man he fucked and came into. It simply isn't in his biology. Lelouch says nothing as C.C. smiles a bit wolfish as she hands him the key to their single bedroom, where awaits some lube (courtesy of C.C., he knows) hidden in the right bedside table. Suzaku, oblivious and wandering around the room looking for any potential threats doesn't realize what Lelouch has managed to spot.

"Suzaku," Lelouch says, trying to keep his voice hardened but a soft sensual purr, he sits on the edge of the bed, head tilted to where Suzaku pops his own head out of the bathroom, expression confused. "Come."

Suzaku, from many nights of cuddling, notices the request right away. Lelouch almost wants to laugh how his once bashful knight takes to easily wrapping his arms around Lelouch's waist, and Lelouch allows himself to flip himself over onto the front of his lap, looking down at Suzaku with a slightly fond expression. Today is the best day to suggest them fucking, he knows this, Suzaku is still rattled from Lelouch's disappearance as has yet to call Lelouch with an added title to his name so far. Today will be the day Suzaku's most likely to feel _inclined_ to mark Lelouch, to remind himself of whom he belongs too, and who Lelouch belongs too as well. But still, Suzaku is a man that puts work first, and Lelouch is seen exactly as that: work.

Lelouch ponders for a moment on what he should in order to prompt them into having sex without any added bonus of an argument, except all he can manage is the parting of his lips, looking directly into Suzaku's eyes and hopes to god he can suddenly telepathically convey: _kiss me, fucking kiss me_.

"Why did you leave me without notice, Suzaku?"

Suzaku flinches, and if he had ears Lelouch can imagine they'd be plastered to the sides of his head, little puppy eyes looking up at him with a look of regret. Mostly because, Lelouch knows if it wasn't for the fact that Suzaku left Lelouch _wouldn't_ have gotten kidnapped, wouldn't have even been remotely close to being kidnapped. Suzaku would have never allowed Kallen and Lelouch to go off with just the two of them. Suzaku would've rathered he had his arms looped off before letting Kallen be alone with just Lelouch. Well, that's what Lelouch likes about his knight.

"Schneizel wished to speak to me."

"Probably about the article," Lelouch deduces immediately. "What did he ask you?"

"Routine questions." Suzaku stiffens, lapsing into his usual knight persona, "Nothing about our relationship aside form his personal worries about you, Lelouch."

_Strange_.

Then again, he's sure Schneizel was probably simply afraid of knowing the truth whether or not (in Schneizel's mind) if Suzaku's anally deflowered him. Lelouch shakes away thoughts of his older brother, concentrating on _how_ he's going to go about getting Suzaku's cock in him. Suzaku doesn't seem to be understanding his subtle hints, therefore he'll need to take a stronger stance of fire. He'll need to jump straight into the fire if he's going to do this, so he finds himself rolling his hips down against Suzaku's lips curling upwards into a lazy smirk just as Suzaku's breath hitches ever so _slightly_.

"I want you to mark me," Lelouch purrs, nose coming to press against the crevice of Suzaku's neck, trying to use his poise over Suzaku to his advantage to look as ravishing as possible. "Show me. Show me how much I mean to you."

"Lelouch—"

"Suzaku," Lelouch finds himself suddenly overwhelmed by the sudden honesty of what falls from his lips, "I want you too."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Schneizel does not seemed impressed when Lelouch demands for a pillow and claims, and this is quoted word for word, "My stomach hurts. Suzaku you came too much." Schneizel had pressed the back of his hand against his forehead and had almost fainted—if it wasn't for Euphemia holding him up by his shoulders (fuck her)—Lelouch would have been very pleased if Schneizel fell face first against the floor.

Well they're currently safely tucked into the back of Schneizel's private car, one of his _many_ many private cars.

Lelouch had leaned backwards into his seat, filing his nails as Suzaku sat up perfectly upright throughout the entire 2 hour drive and then they ended up where they currently are. Lelouch doesn't really give his older brother enough credit to how much he truly does love Lelouch, obviously as hand-cuffs land over his wrists, swords pointed at Suzaku's neck the moment they're clicked into place, he gives his older brother's love for him _too_ much credit. Apparently. He doesn't bother with struggling they're right in front of the royal prison after all, one whistle and hundreds of soldiers trained in the special art of suppression will be flooding out of the gates. And despite how much esteem he holds Suzaku's talents at, Suzaku can't handle an entire army de-armed as he is right now.

"Suzaku," Lelouch says finally as Suzaku makes a sharp quick reach for his sword. "Stand down."

Suzaku looks at him wildly at that, expression of fear settling deeply within his eyes.

"So," Lelouch says, finally looking to where Schneizel looks oddly torn. "Are you going to behead me for being a traitor now?"

"No. I know you aren't a traitor, you're merely trying to annoy me." _Yes_ , Lelouch thinks immediately, but is slightly annoyed at how well Schneizel has already unfurled his plans. It's extremely annoying. "Suzaku, however, can be charged with treason if I so desire."

This was something Lelouch anticipated Schneizel would hold over his head. Still it doesn't make the potential death threat to Suzaku's safety any less alarming. "Is that your pathetic attempt to punish me? Kill my lover? I highly doubt that'd give you the results you seek. Plus, Suzaku wasn't involved in my plans. That was _part_ of my plans."

Schneizel's frown deepens at the words 'lover', before he coughs eloquently into a fist.

"Yes, you're correct you would just spend the rest of your life more resentful at me than you already are," Schneizel steps forward as Suzaku's lowered to his knee's, and Lelouch hates that sight of it in general. It isn't suiting. Suzaku should only bow before him, not to his brother, even if he's being forced to bow because there's two soldiers pushing at the back of Suzaku's neck with guns. "But, I can detain him and place him in prison until I see fit, even if he wasn't involved in the planning process, he still pointed his sword at me and threatened my life."

_Good thing we had sex last night_ , Lelouch thinks almost bitterly, wondering how long Suzaku will be detained for. Four months? Four years? Well, he highly doubts he'd allow it go any further than a year, but he'll have to see, there is this game between the two of them, him and Schneizel, seeing if Lelouch will be able to win a game against his big brother. He has yet to do it. But if anything, imprisonment of his knight is more than enough inspiration to suddenly start a winning streak. But Suzaku pointed his sword at Schneizel? _The idiot_ , Lelouch wants to hiss out. If Suzaku had just acted accordingly then both of them would be getting off scott-free.

"I will go willingly." Suzaku finally says, head bowing. "If it ensures the safety of my charge."

Lelouch feels irritation spike him, what is Suzaku _thinking_? Suzaku should be thinking of ways to escape, ways to return back to Lelouch's side immediately, what if Lelouch is kidnapped again? Without Suzaku what sort of power does he have against his enemies? _None_. That's what. "Brother," Lelouch doesn't know what possesses him, but he nimbly slides to Suzaku's side, grabbing the discarded sword from the ground in almost a clumsy fashion and swings around to point it in the direction of Schneizel, and smiles. "I guess we should be detained together, then."

Schneizel sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose with a look of long suffering defeat. "Lelouch, honestly..."

(Later that night though, Schneizel posts an 8k word document with rare inclusive shots of Lelouch holding a sword throughout his childhood about how Lelouch pointing a sword at him reminded him of all those _cute_ attempts Lelouch used to make in attempt to take Schneizel's life).

 

 

 


End file.
